Almost Too Perfect
by Grettigirl123
Summary: Bo and Luke are both accused of committing separate crimes with eye witnesses placing them at the scenes. Locked in separate jails in separate cities, all seems lost for them, until help comes from unexpected people. I hope you enjoy it.
1. Chapter 1

_**I thought I might have a fairly decent idea for my second attempt at a story, but I needed one little thing to be different. For the record, I adore Roscoe. I love all his charm and childish antics, but anyone who knows the story of The Dukes will probably agree that Roscoe was much smarter in the first 1 ½ seasons than during the rest of the series. He was much less bumbling before the Dukes went to the 8pm timeslot, and although I understand the idea to make him a bit more family-friendly, I found myself sometimes wishing that he could have been a little less clumsy and just a tad more competent. **_

_**Now, my story will have to have taken place after season 4, but in order for my story to work, I simply need Roscoe to be a little bit, well… smarter. So, you can interpret this one of two ways; either you can read it as Roscoe being played OOC, or you can just see me borrowing the smarter Roscoe from the beginning seasons. Whichever way works for you is fine with me. I hope you enjoy it. **_

_**I do not own any rights to The Dukes of Hazzard or its characters.**_

_Approximately 12:30 p.m._

There was a rustling, then a crashing sound coming from Ms. Harpswell's living room. At first she thought it was probably just the cat knocking over something from the bookcase, but after a moment she realized that the sounds had continued for longer than what the cat could create, so she decided to investigate. Much to her surprise, when she entered the living room there was a young man going through her strongbox at the end of her mantle. He was crouched down with his back toward her, and he had her small manila envelope that held her savings and mortgage money in his hand. She gasped at the site of him, causing him to stiffen at the sound of her, and he stood with his back still facing her.

Even without seeing his face, she knew who it was. The blond hair, the yellow, long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans, there was no questioning who this young man was.

"Bo Duke?" She cried. "What on Earth are you doing in here?"

The man didn't answer, however, he did raise his hands up slightly in surrender, but he never turned toward her.

"Never mind, I know what you're doing." She answered for him, "You just stay right where you are while I call the sheriff."

With that, the young man fled, bolting for the front screen door. However, the latch on the door stuck, leaving him no choice but to tear his way through it, ripping his jeans on the upper left side of his thigh. This maneuver barely slowed him down as he ran across her front lawn, placing his hand on her white fence to hurl his long legs over it and continued to race to the all too familiar orange sports car with the number 01 on the door and the confederate flag on top. Within seconds, the car sped away.

Ms. Harpswell grabbed her Polaroid camera that she always kept next to her window and chased after him. She stopped at her porch and snapped a quick picture as he sprinted across her lawn to the car. She continued across her lawn to her fence as she watched the speeding car make its getaway. She looked down at her fence where he had placed the palm of his hand. Although there were no fingerprints, there was a definite red smeared stain where his hand had been. Curiosity got the best of her and she touched the stain. It was fresh red paint. It probably had dried earlier, but with sweaty palms it would still leave a mark if pressed against a light colored surface. She shook her head in dismay, clearly confused and disappointed that a nice young man like Bo would commit such a horrible crime against her. Some time had passed as she looked at the now developed photo. It was a photo from the back, but there would be no question that it was definitely Bo. She sighed in disbelief and made her way back into her house to call the sheriff.

_A little earlier, at approximately 12 p.m._

About a mile and a half from Ms. Harpswell's house, Bo Duke was just finishing some much needed repair work on Miss Tisdale's fence. He and Luke had gone their separate ways today, with Luke being sent across town to help Mr. Tucker bale some hay. Mr. Tucker could no longer carry the same workload since his heart attack last May, and he was very grateful that Luke had offered to come and help him. Luke had taken Dixie, Bo had taken The General Lee. It was turning out to be a rather hot day, and Bo couldn't help but chuckle to himself how lucky he was to be mending a fence rather than working in a hot field without any shade, doing very strenuous labor.

Now that the fence was repaired, it would need to be painted. Bo went into Miss Tisdale's shed and opened what he thought was a can of white paint. He sighed and muttered to himself when he discovered it was a can of red paint, not white, that he had just spent five full minutes trying to pry open. To make matters worse, the paint had sloshed up when the cover popped off, covering his hand in the bright color. "Well, genius," He chastised himself, "That'll teach you to read labels before you open something." He wiped his hand as best he could with an old rag, and then continued his task of retrieving the correct paint can for the job. As he turned toward the door of the shed, he thought he saw a shadow sweep across the doorway. He frowned for a moment as he peered out. Nothing caught his eye, so he shrugged it off.

Miss Tisdale was just coming out of her house with some sandwiches and lemonade for Bo as he made his way out of the shed and back toward the fence. "Oh, there you are, Bo." Miss Tisdale smiled. "I've brought you some lunch. I hope you're hungry."

"Miss Tisdale, you adorable thing, you." Bo flirted. He took the tray from her and brought his lunch to the picnic table. "I think you've been reading my mind." He sat down and took a huge bite of the first sandwich. "Mmm, mmm, this is exactly what I've been craving since breakfast."

Miss Tisdale beamed. "I'm glad you like it, dear. Now, I've got some errands to run in town and most likely will not be back before it's time for you to leave. Please be a dear and lock the storage shed for me when you're through, okay?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Bo answered. "Is there anything else I can help you with today? I'm just about done with the fence. It just needs a coat of paint."

Miss Tisdale thought for a moment, "You know, there is one tiny thing you could do for me. In my back yard, there is a small section of old barbed wire fence. If you could please get a pair of gloves and remove it for me, I would greatly appreciate it. Just throw it in the back of my pickup truck and I'll take it to the Hazzard Dump tomorrow. It's just a short piece, but, then again, so am I!"

Bo nodded as he swallowed his next bite of sandwich. "Sure thing, Miss Tisdale. Just be sure you get someone to help you unload it tomorrow. Don't try to do it yourself. Them barbed wires can get nasty if you get tangled up in them."

"Thank you, sweetie, I'll be sure to do that. Thanks again for all your help. Be sure you say 'Hi' to your Uncle Jesse for me!" She waved back at Bo, placed her helmet on her head and sped off on her motorcycle, popping her bike up on one wheel as she made her way down the road.

Bo shook his head and smiled at her. 'What a character!' He thought to himself as he made his way to the backyard to tackle the barbed wire. He would finish his lunch in a bit, but he wanted to be sure he got that wire fencing out of the way first. She was right, it was a short piece, but it was old and rusted and tangled. He put his gloves on, held the wire at arms length and carried it out to the truck. All of a sudden, he got the strange feeling that someone or something was watching him. He stopped and looked around, again saw nothing so he shook his head and made his way back to his lunch. "Man," he said aloud, "I've got to ease up on them Alfred Hitchcock movies. They're startin' to freak me out!" He sat back down at the picnic table and finished his lunch, washing it down with the tall glass of lemonade.

About an hour later, he had a nice thick coat of paint on the fence, the shed was locked up tight, the tray and plate from lunch had been placed on the front porch and Bo was headed for home. His favorite song was playing on the radio as he made his way down The Old Mill Road, and all in all Bo had had a fairly decent day. That is, until he turned in his driveway and saw the sheriff's car, along with Roscoe, Enos, Uncle Jesse, Daisy and someone who looked a lot like Ms. Harpswell standing in front of the house.

"Whatever, this is, it can't be good." Bo thought as he parked The General Lee and climbed out of the car.

Jesse saw Bo and called over to him. "Bo?"

"Yeah,"

"Front and center, boy." He answered, pointing directly in front of him.

Bo frowned, 'Nope, this certainly isn't good. What the heck can it be?' He thought to himself, then responded to his uncle's order with a quick "Yes, Sir" and jogged over toward the group of people standing in the driveway. Bo leaned against the sheriff's car and faced Jesse. "What's going on?"

Jesse took a step toward Bo, frowning at him and squinting his eyes. "I was hoping you could tell me." Roscoe stood next to Jesse, and Ms. Harpswell stood a few steps from Roscoe, with Enos and Daisy behind the rest of them. It looked as though Daisy had been crying. "Where've you been today?" Bo then noticed that Jesse held a small photograph in his hand.

A look of confusion passed over Bo's face. "I've been exactly where I said I was gonna be. I've been at Miss Tisdale's house, repairing her fence."

"And you've been there all day?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Did you leave her house at any time, for any reason?"

"No, I've been right at her house since eight o'clock this morning."

"And Miss Tisdale can vouch for your whereabouts all day?"

"She can until just before lunch, then she had to leave to do some errands."

At this point, Luke pulled in the driveway. His reaction was about the same Bo's had been when he saw the sheriff's car and the group of people gathered in the driveway. Luke's stomach turned a little bit when he noticed that they all seemed to be gathering around Bo. 'This can't be good.' He thought to himself as he walked over to join everyone. "Hey yall, what's going on here?"

Without taking his eyes off Bo, Jesse responded to Luke with a raised finger in his direction. "Hold on just a minute, Luke. I'm not done here yet."

Bo was still leaning up against the patrol car, with his hands resting against the side of it. Jesse looked down at Bo's jeans, seeing a tear on the upper thigh of his left leg. "How'd you rip your jeans?"

Bo looked down and seemed to be noticing the tear for the first time. He raised his eyebrows in surprise and ran his finger along the rip. "Gee, I don't know. I didn't know they were ripped until just now." He thought for a moment. "It could've happened while I was taking down a piece of barbed wire fencing. I must've caught my jeans on that." He shrugged back at his uncle.

Jesse's face showed no reaction to Bo's answer, as he stole a glance at Roscoe. Roscoe returned the look to Jesse, but didn't have any verbal response. Jesse turned his gaze back to his nephew.

"Hold your hands out where I can have a look at them."

Bo sighed and held his hands in front of him for Jesse's inspection. Jesse took both of Bo's hands in his, turning them palms up and immediately concentrating on the hand that had a smeared red mark across the palm of it. Jesse let out a deep breath when he saw it, and Daisy placed her hand up to her mouth to stifle a sob. "And the stain, where'd that come from?" Jesse continued.

Upon seeing the crowd's reaction, especially Daisy's, Bo showed signs of nervousness. His eyes darted across to each person watching him, including Luke, who was the only other person looking just as confused as he was. Luke shrugged at him, Bo shrugged back.

"I spilled some paint when I opened the can. I was getting paint to finish the fence."

"You painted her fence red?"

"No, Sir. I painted it white, but I opened the wrong paint can accidently. Can someone please tell me what the heck is going on here? Was I supposed to have done something wrong?"

At this point, Roscoe spoke, taking a step toward Bo. "Alright. I've heard just about enough of this nonsense." Jesse tried to interject, but Roscoe put his hand up. "No, Jesse. I've let you have your talk with him, now it's my turn." Roscoe put his finger in the middle of Bo's chest. "At approximately twelve-thirty this afternoon, you were seen in Ms. Harpswell's living room, stealing an envelope from her strong box that contained twelve hundred dollars in cash. You then fled the scene, tearing your jeans on her screen door and leaving a red stain on her fence as you hopped over it, making your way to The General Lee."

"What!" Bo hollered. "That's insane! I would never do something like that!"

Luke heard this accusation and immediately came to Bo's defense. "Aw, come on, Roscoe. You've got to be joking. There's no way Bo would ever do that." He gave a pleading look to Jesse. "Uncle Jesse, you know they're lying. You know Bo better than that!"

Roscoe continued. "Ms. Harpswell saw you with her own eyes. Even took a picture of you making your getaway." Roscoe then took the photograph from Jesse and handed it to Bo. "How do you explain this?"

Bo stared at the picture in disbelief. Luke came to Bo's side and also looked in shock at the photo. He looked up at Bo, then at Roscoe. "When was this taken?"

"Ms. Harpswell took it of Bo as he was running away from her house today. You can see the envelope still in his hand. There's no doubt it's Bo." He pulled the picture down a little so he could point at it. "Look, you can even see The General Lee in the background, there. Coot, coot!" He laughed as he watched the boys squirm a little.

Luke's expression seemed to change as he added up the insurmountable evidence against his cousin. He looked down at the rip in Bo's jeans, and then touched the stain mark on his palm. He then looked Bo in the eyes and studied him. "Bo?" he finally stammered out. "Can you explain any of this?"

Bo looked helplessly at Luke, then at everyone else gathered around him. "All I can tell you is that I wasn't there. It wasn't me. I was at Miss Tisdale's all day today fixing her fence. I swear to you all, I didn't do this." He almost looked as if he were going to break down.

Luke thought of something. Turning to Roscoe, he continued. "Where's the money? If Bo took the money, then he should have it on him."

Roscoe nodded. "You're right, Luke. He should have it on him." He then took Bo by the arm. "Turn around and put your hands on the hood of the car, there. I'm gonna search ya for evidence." Bo did as instructed, and Roscoe patted him down, finding nothing.

"See?" Bo replied, turning back to face Roscoe. "I told ya, I didn't take anything."

Roscoe seemed undaunted at not finding the envelope and turned toward The General. "Well, that only leaves one other place it could be, then." He turned and looked back at Jesse. "You don't have a problem with me searching the car, do ya? After all, I believe I have plenty of probable cause."

Jesse thought for a second, then nodded his head. "Go ahead and search it. If Bo's tellin' the truth, then he's got nothing to fear in that."

Roscoe leaned into the driver's side window, feeling under the seat and checking the dashboard. He then did the same on the passenger side of the car, but when he swept under the passenger seat, his fingertips brushed up against the object he was looking for. Grasping it with his hand, Roscoe pulled out the small manila envelope in question. For the briefest of moments, a look of disbelief crossed Roscoe's face as he studied the package, then opened it and pulled out a considerable amount of cash. He held up the contents for the rest of them to see.

A look of absolute horror crossed Bo's face. There was no possible way this could be happening. He shook his head and tried to stammer out something, but before he could say anything, Jesse walked right up to him and pressed his chest against his, pinning him to the side of the patrol car.

"Okay, Bo. You need to start talking and start talking fast. How did that money get in your car?"

Bo looked helplessly at the money, then at everyone looking back at him. "I have no idea how that money got there, I sure as heck didn't take it."

Jesse sighed. He took a deep breath as his face hardened a bit. "Bo. Do you remember the last time you lied to me?"

"Yes I do. I was fourteen, and you whooped me and washed my mouth out with soap."

"And do you remember that as a pleasant experience?"

Bo shook his head. "Not at all. I couldn't sit down for three full days, and everything tasted like lye for a solid week."

Jesse stared deep into Bo's eyes. "And are you lying to me now?"

Bo looked Jesse square in the eyes. "No, Sir, I am not." He adamantly stated.

Jesse held his gaze as he studied him. He then nodded and placed a hand on Bo's shoulder. "I'm sorry for that, Bo, but I had to be sure. Now, I want you to know that I believe you, but we have to figure out an explanation to all of this. It really doesn't look good." He stepped back away from Bo, taking the pressure off his chest. He scratched his chin and thought. At that moment, Luke thought of a possibility. "Did you crack your head on anything today? Maybe get dazed or stunned for a while?"

Bo shook his head. "No, nothing like that at all."

Jesse placed his hand against Bo's cheek. "Maybe you were out in the sun too much and got heat stroke. Remember how sick you were with it a few summers back? Maybe the heat caused you to black out."

Bo reached up and took Jesse's hand away from his face. Again he shook his head. "No, Sir. Nothing like that happened. I can account for every minute of the day today, and at no time did I leave Miss Tisdale's land. I feel fine, and never hit my head or any other part of me on anything." He pointed to the picture. "If that picture was taken today, then there's another fella out there that looks just like me, 'cause that's not me."

Roscoe took the picture back from Bo. "Well, if that's the case, then he dresses like you and drives the exact same car as you. He even spilled paint on the same hand and tore the same place in his jeans today." He smirked at Bo. "C'mon, Bo. You can't seriously expect me to believe you, can ya? The evidence speaks for itself." He waved back towards Enos. "Enos, you dipstick. Get over here and do your sworn duty. Arrest Bo for breaking and entering and theft, and get him cuffed and stuffed."

Enos sheepishly stepped toward Bo. "I'm real sorry about this, yall. I wish there were some other explanation for all this." He took out his handcuffs and motioned for Bo to turn around. "Don't give me any troubles, now."

With a look of total defeat, Bo quietly turned around and placed his hands behind his back. He looked over to his uncle. "As long as you believe me, Uncle Jesse, that's the most important thing."

"I do, Bo, honest, I do. Don't worry, we'll figure out someway, somehow to prove that you're innocent. One way or another, we'll get to the bottom of this." Jesse then placed a hand on Enos' shoulder. "When you get him to the jailhouse, Enos, I want you to do a drug test on him, just to be sure that he hadn't been slipped anything and that all our bases are covered." Enos nodded. "That's a good idea, Uncle Jesse. None of this seems to be in character with Bo at all." Enos opened the rear door of the police car and helped Bo inside, and then he and Roscoe got in front with Ms. Harpswell. The rest of the Dukes watched helplessly as the car pulled away.

Daisy couldn't help but break down and cry. "Oh Uncle Jesse, Luke, what on Earth are we going to do? I know that Bo's telling the truth, but there's so much evidence stacked against him this time…"

Luke shook his head. "It's too perfect. It's just too neatly packaged. I just don't get it, but somehow I know the answer is right in front of us, we just can't see it yet."

Jesse nodded. "I know what you mean, Luke. The question is, will we be able to see it in time to save Bo from going to jail for the next ten years?"

"Well, I know one thing; I'm not going to find the answer here in this driveway, that's for sure. I'm gonna head into town and do some snooping on Boss Hogg. He's the obvious first place to start. It wouldn't be unlike him at all to try to frame Bo for something like this. What I don't understand is, why would it be just Bo and not both of us?"

"I don't know, son, but I do agree that J.D would be the most sensible person to start looking at. I'm gonna make a stop over to Miss Tisdale's, just to be sure Bo didn't get his times wrong. Maybe she can put a few missing pieces together for us."

"And I'm gonna head over to the Boar's Nest and do some eavesdropping myself." Daisy added. The three Dukes all headed off in separate directions, each promising to check back with each other the minute any of them got any bit of information. Somewhere out there were the answers that would explain all of this, they just had to find them, wherever they were.


	2. Chapter 2

_**I've just noticed that I've been spelling Rosco's name wrong. I've fixed it going forward, and I apologize for the error….. I hope you enjoy this next chapter. It's a little short, but I needed to concentrate on what was happening inside Rosco's head for a while. **_

Rosco and Enos dropped Ms. Harpswell back to her house, reminding her that they would need a completed official statement from her first thing in the morning. They then returned to the courthouse. Enos stayed with Bo to book him and get him settled in his cell, while Rosco made his way over to the door of Boss Hogg's office. Rosco stopped for a moment before entering to gather up his thoughts, which could take a while. He watched Enos leading Bo down the stairwell to the cell kept down there. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out the Polaroid photo and studied it once again.

What he had before him was an open and shut case. He had an eye witness, he had hard evidence in hand, he had a suspect in custody who had no alibi during the time of the crime….yep, it was a perfect, open and shut case. Rosco's eyes narrowed a bit as he chewed on his lower lip. He thought of all the years he and Boss had tried in vain to set up the Duke boys for something, anything, to put them away behind bars for good, and here he was with all the evidence he needed, and then some, to finally do it to at least one of them.

What Rosco couldn't understand was why he had a bad feeling about this whole thing. He thought back to Bo's reactions to the accusations when presented to him. He saw the fear and confusion in his eyes, the cracking voice, the body language and of course, the pleading that he was innocent. He'd known the Duke family for years. He knew how those boys and Daisy had been taught by Jesse to always tell the truth, no matter what. He knew the odds that Bo would look Jesse right in the eyes and lie to him were pretty slim. The biggest thing was that when it came right down to it, deep down in Rosco's heart, he knew, at least he was pretty sure, that Bo was telling the truth.

He also knew that there actually was a crime committed today. The money really was stolen from Ms. Harpswell's strong box. There really was the photo, the red stain, and the torn jeans…and every single shred of evidence pointed directly at Bo. Rosco also knew that there was very little chance that Ms. Harpswell was being anything less than honest. She had no reason to create any type of story like this one, and she had no reason to implicate Bo, or any of the Dukes of such a crime. If it wasn't Bo, and it wasn't Ms. Harpswell, then there really was only one other person that Rosco could think of that would do such a thing. He again looked at Boss's office door and placed his hand on the doorknob. It had to have been Boss. There was really no other explanation for the events of today. The only questions that Rosco had left were how did Boss pull this all off so perfectly and why hadn't he been let in on the scheme? Rosco figured there was only one way to find out any of the answers, so he took a deep breath and opened Boss's door and entered with a big smile.

"Good news, good news!" He beamed. "I gotta hand it to ya, Boss, you sure did an A-Plus job this time."

Boss looked up from his desk and scowled. "I did? And what exactly was it supposed to be that I did an A-Plus job at?" He mimicked back to Rosco.

"You know, Boss….you're plan? I gotta say, you sure pulled out all the stops this time. And it all went off without a hitch, too." Walking over to Boss, Rosco elbowed him in the shoulder and winked. "Let's just say that the 'package' has been delivered and is being safely packed away in storage as we speak. Coot, coot!"

Boss frowned and shook his head pathetically at his sheriff. "Honestly, Rosco. If I am ever able to follow a single word that comes out of your mouth, I'd take it as a sure sign of insanity on my part. Now knock off the jabbering and tell me what in blazes you're babbling about. I'm very busy and have no time for your foolishness today."

Rosco's eyes narrowed and he bent down close to Boss's beady little face. If Boss was bluffing, he was doing an excellent job at it. He pointed out the door toward the stairwell. "Boss?" He stammered, "It was you, wasn't it? I mean, it had to have been you. There ain't no one else it could've been." Seeing that Boss was still staring at him blankly, with frustration mounting with every word that came out of his mouth, Rosco figured it was just time to come out with it. "The plan to frame Bo Duke for stealing twelve hundred dollars from Ms. Harpswell's strong box?"

Boss's eyes widened to the size of saucers. He stood frozen for a moment as the words sunk in. He looked at Rosco in disbelief. "Is Bo the 'package' that is downstairs being held?"

Rosco smiled and nodded. "He sure is, Boss. Plus, the evidence against him is stacked higher than a wad of your cash! There's no way he's gonna be able to wiggle his way out of this one. He's off to the State Penn for good this time!"

Boss took a big puff of his cigar and flopped back down into his chair. "Rosco?" he cooed, "Why don't you just sit right down here with me and tell me everything little detail of how it all went down today, and I don't want you to leave _anything_ out."

Eagerly Rosco pulled a chair up close to Boss and told the whole story from start to finish. Boss sat as if in a daze; never once interrupting or asking any questions. When all was told, Rosco finished up with "And to top it all off, Ms. Harpswell got a nice Polaroid shot of Bo fleeing the scene! Coot coot!" He handed the photo over to Boss for him to see.

Boss looked the picture over in amazement. It had happened. It finally had happened. Downstairs in his jail cell sat a Duke boy waiting to be tried for a felony, a _real_ felony! After all the years of scheming to pin a crime on them, one of them had actually gone out and committed an actual crime all on his own, and there was a substantial amount of evidence to boot. Boss continued to stare at the picture as he began to laugh. It started as a chuckle, but soon grew to be a full belly laugh. He was beaming from ear to ear, and suddenly felt the urge to jump up and do a jig! "Rosco!" He cried as he locked elbows with him and twirled him around in a circle. "Do you know what this means? Bo Duke is finally gonna be out of my hair for good! After all this time trying to frame him, he's actually gone out and done this thing on his own! How unbelievable is that?" He continued to laugh as he danced around his office.

Upon hearing his, Rosco stopped smiling and stopped dancing. His brow furrowed and he brought a finger up to his chin as he digested what Boss had just said. He gave Boss a minute to calm down, and then questioned him. "Wait just a second, Boss. Does that mean that you _didn't_ have anything to do with this?"

"That's what I'm saying, Rosco." Boss answered. "Oh, well, it would have been a beauty of a plan, let me say that. I mean, it's perfect! Almost too perfect! Bo Duke was literally caught 'red handed'!" Again he let out a belly laugh as he wobbled his way back to his desk. "A plan like this would probably take _years_ to perfect. I mean, I would have to come up with a look alike for Bo, at least from the back, I would have to somehow coincide all of Bo's actions for the day to make sure the stain and the tear were on both of them at the same time, then of course, I would have to have an exact replica of The General Lee and make sure Bo had no alibi at the time of the robbery….. I mean, that type of plan would have to be carried out to the letter by a team of experts in order to get it exactly right."

Rosco scratched his head and thought. "Yeah, I guess you're right, Boss. A plan like that would take an awful lot of thought and work to be pulled off without a hitch." Suddenly, the uneasy feeling in his stomach was back. He could understand Boss's enthusiasm in catching one of the Duke boys, he really could. In fact, Rosco would be the first one to celebrate with him, if he could either be assured that Bo really was guilty, or if he knew it was one of Boss's plans. Either one of those scenarios would be fine. However, if Boss didn't do it, and he was still fairly certain that Bo didn't do it, then that meant only one other thing. There was someone else out there with a mind for vengeance. Someone who apparently had it in for Bo, and now that he had been taken care of, it opened up the possibility that someone else in Hazzard could be next… and that there was the thing that was eating away at Rosco's stomach.


	3. Chapter 3

Luke finally pulled The General Lee back in the Duke driveway at nine am the next morning. He had been out all night, asking anyone who would listen if they had seen anything or anyone around town that had looked like trouble. Unfortunately, no one had seen or heard of anything out of the ordinary that day.

Luke had gone to Cooter's as well, if for no other reason than to let him in on what had happened with Bo, and since every single car that passed through Hazzard County caught Cooter's attention, he would be a good one to keep his eyes and ears open going forward. He also had Cooter help him go over The General with a fine toothed comb, because he figured someone had either somehow gotten use of him to use as a getaway car for Ms. Harpswell's robbery, or had at the very least been at the car to hide the envelope under the passenger's seat. Again, the search turned up nothing, so the two of them decided to search every inch of Hazzard for anything that might point them in the right direction to save Bo.

Luke entered the kitchen door and found Jesse and Daisy at the table having a light breakfast and coffee. The smell of the fresh coffee was the only thing that had perked Luke up since about twelve thirty yesterday afternoon, so he eagerly found a cup from the cupboard and poured himself some. He joined his kin at the table to pool together any information they may have come up with, which didn't turn out to be much.

"I stayed at the Boar's Nest last night until almost eleven thirty, and for probably the first time I never saw a single person there that I didn't recognize." Daisy began. "I listened for anything that someone may have said about Bo, and I never even heard a peep. What was the strangest thing was that neither Boss nor Rosco was there last night either, and they're always coming in and out of the Boar's Nest." Daisy shook her head. "The only person who even mentioned Bo was Enos, who stopped by to see how I was doing and to pick up a few burgers for Bo to give him for dinner, which I thought was awfully sweet of him." She turned back to Luke. "Oh Luke, please tell me you had better luck than I did."

"I wish I could tell you that I did." Luke sadly admitted. "Cooter and me searched every back road and bike trail in Hazzard County, along with every abandoned barn or storage shed in the area. There was just nothing to be found anywheres." Luke took a big gulp of his coffee. "It's like any evidence for Bo just vanished into thin air."

Jesse nodded his head. "I know what you mean, Luke. If it were anyone but one of the three of you, then I would swear up and down that the sheriff had the right suspect in custody this time." He then put his hand up a little, "Not that I'm saying that's the case, 'cause it's not, I still one hundred percent stand behind Bo and I fully believe that he's innocent. I just can't for the life of me figure out what happened."

Luke sighed, "Did Miss Tisdale have any other information at all, Uncle Jesse?"

"The only thing she mentioned at all was that she had passed a delivery truck about a mile down the road when she had left to run her errands. I believe she said it was from some furniture store called 'Hathaway's'. I've never heard of them, so they must be from out of town. She said she saw them pulled over in front of Jed Mayberry's house. I suppose I should check with Jed today to see if maybe he saw anything, seeing how his house is only a half a mile from Ms. Harpswell's."

Luke nodded. "Well, I guess that's a little bit better than nothing, and it's as good a place as any to start. We should also plan to go and talk to Bo some more today after lunch. Maybe he's thought of something since yesterday. I know he was pretty frazzled like the rest of us were. Now that he's had a chance to think, he might have something for us."

Jesse stood from the table. "What I think the three of us all need right now are clear heads. And I know for a fact that none of us got any sleep at all last night, so I'm telling you both that the very first thing we're all gonna do now is go in our rooms and get a couple hours of rest. Ain't none of us gonna be any help to Bo in the state we're all in right now. So let's go get some rest." He pointed at Luke, "And I mean it, young man."

Luke didn't look very happy about the order, but he nodded. "Okay, Uncle Jesse. I will."

Daisy got up and gave both her guys a hug, then turned to go into her room. "See you both in a few hours. Try to get some rest."

After about twenty minutes in his room, Luke just had to get up and leave. He couldn't stand to lie there, looking at the empty bed beside him and knowing full well that whoever was behind this was still out there while Bo sat in a jail cell. He left the room and wasn't too surprised to see Jesse sitting back in his easy chair with his feet up. He looked as if he was resting, but he wasn't sleeping. "Going somewheres?" Jesse asked.

Luke shrugged and sighed. "I'm sorry, Uncle Jesse. I just can't lie in that bed anymore, I just can't."

Jesse nodded. "To be honest with you, I'm surprised you lasted as long as you did in there."

Luke smiled faintly. "I'm gonna take a drive up to the fishing pond. It's the one place that I can go to where I can really get lost in thought, and it really does help me to relax. Can I go with your blessing?"

Jesse smiled and nodded. "You go do what you've gotta do. Just try not to beat yourself up over this. You know as well as I do that there ain't none of this that's your fault, and there wasn't nothing you could do yesterday about what happened."

"I just can't help thinking that we should've been together yesterday. Man, what are the odds that the one day we're not spending together would be the day that something like this would happen?" Luke shook his head. "Somehow, I don't think that's a coincidence. It's almost like that was part of the plan. I just can't put together how or why someone would do all of this. It doesn't make sense."

"Why don't you go sit at the fishing pond and try to relax. Like I said earlier, we need some clear heads to be any good to Bo, and he's gonna need our help now more than ever if we're gonna get him through this."

"Sounds good, Jesse. I'll be back in a few hours. Maybe I'll even be able to catch a nap."

"You be careful now, and stay close to the c.b."

"Yes, Sir."

After about a half an hour at the fishing pond, Luke realized that this was a bad idea. The mosquitoes were almost literally eating him alive, and he just couldn't stand it anymore. Plus, there was this big powerboat that kept going up and down the side of the pond, causing a lot of noise and it really was beginning to annoy Luke, so he decided to instead take a drive up to his second favorite place, still sight number three. The old still sight had a nice shady spot and even had a comfortable little couch to stretch out on, and after just a few minutes there he was all settled in. He smiled as he saw some of the old moonshine equipment, and picked up a moonshine bottle and sniffed the opened spout. He never drank too much of it, but the smell of Uncle Jesse's shine always brought back fond memories for Luke. He set the bottle down at the foot of the couch and soon found himself yawning. He leaned back and closed his eyes for a few minutes.

Not too far behind him, he heard some branches snap as if someone were coming. He quickly jerked his body up and turned his head to see who or what it was. Much to Luke's surprise, he saw nothing. 'Weird', he thought, then shrugged it off as probably a squirrel or badger. He chuckled to himself that it was just the lack of sleep and was also due to his being out all night playing cops and robbers. He lay back down and closed his eyes again. With the warm sunlight poking through the thin shade of the tree tops, it was only a moment or two before Luke was sound asleep.

_One hour later, approximately twelve pm._

Sheriff Little of Chickasaw County sat ever so patiently one mile from the Hazzard County line, waiting to see if the anonymous tip he'd received was going to pay off. It had been an intriguing phone call, to say the least, with information regarding a shine run in his county. The informant claimed that an orange sports car would be crossing into Chickasaw at noon, with at least five jugs full of first rate moonshine, to be delivered to an abandoned storage shed approximately three miles north of Route 7.

Of course, Sheriff Little was all too familiar with this particular orange sports car, and the mere mention of it brought his blood to the boiling temperature. 'The Duke boys', he thought to himself, 'let's just see how clever you are this time around.' He would usually wait for them right at the county line, and they would almost always spot him just before they entered his jurisdiction and would usually turn back. On this particular day, the Dukes had no permission to be traveling in his county. They would be breaking their probation simply by driving over the county line, which would be enough to send them to prison, however, if they were caught with a substantial amount of illegal alcohol, it would be one of the biggest busts he would make this whole year. Little preferred to think of himself as an intelligent man, and he made an adjustment to his stakeout location so that the Dukes would already be very much into his county before they would see him.

Just as Sheriff Little was beginning to suspect that the tip had been a false alarm, he heard the roar of a car engine. Speeding up the road was the infamous General Lee. Little's lips stretched into a deviously satisfied grin and his heart began to pound a bit as he waited for the perfect time for his plan to fully come into action. Within seconds, the car zipped past him and he took off like a rocket directly behind them. Wait…..not them, as there was only one man in the car instead of the usual two. The dark haired one, Luke Duke, was it? ….was the sole occupant. Typically dressed in a blue plaid shirt, Luke quickly reacted to the sheriff's car by throwing The General Lee into high gear and trying to put some distance between him and the car behind him. However, Sheriff Little had souped up his engine a bit and at the moment was having no problem keeping up with Luke. At one point, the sheriff's car had even pulled right up along side The General, and Little had shouted for Luke to pull over, but Luke never even looked at Little, had even seemed to be turning his face away from him as he continued to speed along the road.

Luke managed to once again pull out in front of Little, and in what seemed to be a last resort, began throwing the shine jugs out the driver's side window, sending them crashing along the side of the road as they hit the pavement. Little roared in dismay as he watched his evidence bottle by bottle disappear into tiny little shards of glass and liquid. He began to scream out and pound on his steering wheel, when amazingly the last jug bounced off a spot of soft sand and rolled safely into the ditch along the roadside, completely intact. Little couldn't believe his eyes. The fact that the jug didn't break meant that he finally had some evidence to collect and begin a case against Luke Duke.

Sheriff Little continued his chase after Luke, but it was only a matter of a few seconds before The General had pulled a safe distance away from Little and literally flew off across a river bed and turned the car to face back toward Hazzard. Little got out of the car for a moment on the other side of the river bed and shook his fist at Luke, who had stopped briefly. "Luke Duke," Little shouted, "I've got you now! I've finally got evidence against you and I plan to prosecute you to the full extent of the law! You hear me? You're going down for this, if it's the last thing I ever do!" Luke waved back at Little, then sped off once again toward the safety of Hazzard County.

Little turned his car around and immediately returned to the shine jug on the side of the road. Being sure to put gloves on first, he carefully picked up his evidence and placed it in the backseat of the cruiser. Little was surprised when he looked up and saw an older woman standing not too far from him, apparently waiting for the bus. "Excuse me, ma'am, did you see what just took place here?"

"Yes I did", she replied. "I saw a young man with dark hair in an orange car throw that bottle from his window. It's a miracle that it didn't shatter into a thousand pieces."

Little smiled. "Yes, it is quite a miracle. Thank you, ma'am, and if you would be so kind, I will need you to fill out a witness statement for me." He brought a notepad from his glove box over to the woman, and she dutifully sat down and began to put her observation on paper. Little was almost beside himself with delight. "Yes, Sir, it's quite a miracle indeed!"


	4. Chapter 4

_I apologize as this chapter is pretty long, but it does contain a lot of information and I hope it reads easily. Thank you all so much for the kind reviews along the way. I've had this idea for a story a while now, and it's very encouraging to know that it's actually making some sense outside my head! _

Jesse's talk with Jed Mayberry had actually uncovered an interesting piece of information. As it turned out, Jed hadn't had any furniture delivered yesterday; in fact, he wasn't even home all day. He had no idea why any delivery truck would be parked in front of his house.

Jesse decided to take the short drive over to Ms. Harpswell's house to ask her if she had seen the truck, or had any idea why it may be in her neighborhood yesterday. He was a bit hesitant at first, not knowing if he would be welcomed on her property, but was pleased when she opened her door for him with a smile. "Hello, Jesse."

Jesse removed his hat as he entered her doorway. "Hello, Esther. Would you mind if I spoke to you for a moment?"

She looked uncertain for a moment, then shook her head. "No, I suppose it would be okay." As she motioned for him to sit, she seemed a bit nervous, almost as if she had been the guilty person in all of this. "Jesse, I just want you to know that I feel just awful about all of this, I really do. I've known your kids since they were really little, and I've always liked them all. I just don't understand any of this, but I do know what I saw yesterday, and as much as it pained me to report it, I swear I told everything exactly as it happened."

Jesse nodded and took her small hand in his. "I'm sure you did, Esther, and none of us thinks anything otherwise." Taking his seat at the table across from her, he continued. "It's just that I know Bo, and he would never do something like take money that didn't belong to him, much less take it from such a nice person as you. I've tried all night long to make sense of any of this, but so far I've come up with nothing. I guess I thought if we talked some more, maybe there may have been some little detail that we overlooked that could shed some light on what happened."

"I wish I could help you, Jesse, but I've already told the sheriff everything, and it all happened so fast. I mean, one minute Bo was standing in my living room with my money in his hand, and the next minute he's running across my yard to his car. By the time I chased him outside he'd already slammed the car door and was speeding off."

Jesse froze for a moment. "Slammed the car door?"

"Yes. Gosh, he took off so fast it's a wonder he didn't shut his hand in it."

"Did you mention the car door to either Rosco or Enos?"

Esther squinted a minute as she pondered Jesse's question. "No, now that you mention it, I don't believe I did. I'm not sure what difference that would make, anyway."

Jesse sat up very straight in his chair and leaned toward her. "Esther, now I need you to think about this and think about it really good. Are you absolutely sure that the person here yesterday opened the car door and got in the car that way. You're sure he didn't climb in through the car window?"

"Oh, I'm sure he didn't go in through the window, Jesse. He barely had time to get in the car the regular way. Why does this matter so much?"

"It makes all the difference in the world, Esther. You see, Bo and Luke's car doors to The General Lee are welded shut. They don't open, so the only way they get in and out of the car is through the windows. If this person opened the door of the car, that can only mean that it wasn't The General…..and if it wasn't The General, then there's a really good chance that it wasn't Bo, either."

A look of confusion and concern crossed Esther Harpswell's face as she slowly stood from the table. "Oh my," she whispered, and then shook her head again, "But no, Jesse, it was Bo. I'm certain of it. It looked _exactly_ like him, and how would you explain everything else? The paint, the tear in his jeans, my gosh, Jesse, how would you explain the fact that he _had_ the money?"

Jesse stood as well and went to her. "I'm not sure how all the other pieces of information will be explained yet, but I can tell you that this information you just gave me was a very important piece of the puzzle, and I just can't thank you enough for telling me about it." He picked his hat up from the table where he had placed it when he sat down. "Oh, I do have one more question for you. By any chance did you see a delivery truck with the name 'Hawthorne's' on the side of it? Miss Tisdale says she saw it yesterday parked in front of Jed Mayberry's house, but when I spoke with him a few minutes ago, he said he never had any delivery from them."

Esther shook her head. "No, I'm sorry Jesse. I didn't see any truck, and I don't know of any of my neighbors who were expecting any deliveries yesterday. Do you think the truck is connected to this somehow?"

Jesse sighed, "I'm not sure, but it's another piece of the puzzle that doesn't quite fit." He went to her and shook her hand. "I want to thank you for talking to me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get to the police station to visit with my nephew and see if Daisy or Luke found out anything more. Have a nice afternoon."

"You too, Jesse, and I do hope everything turns out okay for you and your family."

Jesse smiled back at her and headed off to Hazzard Square for a family meeting. The news he had just received was a huge piece of the puzzle, for he now knew that there was actually someone out there posing as Bo. What he didn't know was what this person had against his family, and what he had hoped to accomplish by framing Bo for such a condemning crime as theft. He only hoped that Luke or Daisy had a few more pieces to put together.

Luke yawned and stretched as he finally opened his eyes. He wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep, but he had a good idea that it was longer than he had planned. "Shoot!" He cursed, "I gotta get down to the police station." He rose from the couch and headed toward The General. For some reason, he looked back at the couch for a moment. The spot where he had placed the moonshine bottle before he had drifted off to sleep was empty. He went back and looked on the other side, thinking it may have rolled away, but still he saw nothing. 'That's odd.' He thought, 'It couldn't have gotten very far.' As he made his way back to the car, he did see a bottle on its side over in some bushes and figured that had to be it. Either way, he didn't have a lot of time to look for it, as he was fairly certain that he was already late and didn't want to keep everyone waiting for him. He quickly hopped in the car and sped off to Hazzard Square.

As expected, Jesse and Daisy were already at the police station with Bo by the time Luke arrived. Enos had brought Bo to the cell upstairs to visit with his family, but Bo would be spending the nights in the cell downstairs as it was cooler down there and would be more comfortable for him. Enos always did have a heart of gold, and saw no reason why just because Bo was a prisoner that he couldn't be treated well. He made sure to tell Rosco and Boss that Bo was being kept downstairs because it was more secure down there and there would be less chance of him escaping, so the two of them were none the wiser to his real reasons.

Daisy had made a nice lunch of fried chicken and biscuits with some coleslaw and beans. Bo hungrily dug in. Not being used to only being fed three times a day, he was starving for a good homemade meal. Daisy couldn't help but chuckle and remind Bo that he'd only been in jail for one day, and had just had a good homemade meal yesterday morning for breakfast. Cooter had joined them for lunch and had even spent a good portion of the morning at the jailhouse playing cards with Bo through the bars.

Bo had put on a brave face for his family, smiling, cracking some jokes and trying his best to remain optimistic, but his body language told them otherwise. He was having a very hard time keeping still, pacing back and forth in his stall very nervously and kept fidgeting with his hands. Jesse could tell that being confined in one small spot was eating away at Bo, especially with the uncertainty of what his future was going to be. Upon seeing Luke walk through the door, Bo's eyes lit up a little bit. "Did you find out anything else?" He was quick to ask.

Luke looked at all of them sheepishly, not wanting to admit that he had fallen asleep. "Um, no, not yet." He answered.

Bo seemed to be getting agitated, "Well there's got to be something out there somewhere that can prove I didn't do any of this. I've only got until the day after tomorrow before I'm being shipped off to Atlanta to be held there. We ain't got much time to waste, here."

At this point, Jesse spoke. He looked over at Enos, "Well I found out a few very interesting pieces of information, and Enos, I want you to be sure that both of what I'm gonna tell ya get logged in your official report." He proceeded to tell Enos and everyone else in the room about the mysterious delivery truck and the fact that Esther Harpswell had seen the door to the imposter General Lee open.

Enos' eyebrows rose up in shock, then they frowned immediately after in deep thought. "Well possum on a gumbush, if them doors opened, that couldn't have been The General." He rubbed his chin. "But, I don't understand the rest of it, then. How could all the other evidence point so clearly to Bo?"

"You know, Enos, that doesn't make any sense to me either." interjected Rosco as he entered the room. "It seems to me that Jesse here's getting desperate to clear Bo of this crime, even though we all know for a fact that he's guilty." Rosco strutted up to the rest of them with his hands at his holster, as if he would pull out his gun any second. "So now we're all supposed to be out looking for a General Lee whose doors open, are we? Now that's just foolishness, and I ain't no fool, no matter what Boss says."

Jesse walked right up to Rosco and pointed at him. "Rosco, if you'd just clean out your ears for a second and listen to some logic, you'd be better off for it. Ms. Harpswell said she was absolutely certain that them doors opened to the getaway car, and if them doors opened, then that car wasn't The General and you know it. Bo and Luke's only got the one car, and you know as well as the rest of us that the car doors to The General are welded shut. So you tell me how they magically opened yesterday for Bo to get into it."

Rosco just shook his head at Jesse. "Ms Harpswell must've just got that part wrong. After all, she was right in the middle of getting robbed by Bo here, and she was probably just nervous and assumed he'd opened the car door to get into it. That is how normal people get in and out of their cars, you know." He smirked at Bo and Luke.

Luke shrugged Rosco off. "Well, it looks like we have a good place as any to start then." Turning to Cooter, "What we need to do is go to the Hazzard Net and put out an APB on both a Hawthorne's delivery truck and The General Lee, especially if anyone says they see Bo driving it, cause we all know he won't be driving it for a few days at least. Both of them type vehicles are bound to draw some attention, so the more eyes we have looking for them, the better our chances are of finding them."

Cooter slapped Luke on the back. "You got it, buddy. I'll go put the word out right now." He went over to where Bo was standing with his hands on the bars and put his hand on top of Bo's. "Don't worry none, Bo. We'll get you out of here before you know it." He smiled and was just about to leave, when the swinging doors to the police office flew open and in stormed Sheriff Little with one of his deputies.

"Well, well, what have we here?" sneered Little. "I was just in here to deliver some extradition papers to the so-called sheriff of these parts, but now it looks like everyone's saved me a trip to the Duke farm."

Rosco swaggered up to Little, almost on his tiptoes to match the height of the towering sheriff before him. "Alright, Little. What the heck are you doing here, and what papers are you talking about?"

Little gave a huge smile. "Why, I'm talking about the papers and arrest warrant I've got all printed up for Luke Duke. And now that I see the whole family's here. I can get this all done in one quick swipe."

"Arrest warrant!" Jesse cried, "For what?"

Sheriff Little's attention turned to Bo for a moment as he seemed to just be noticing what side of the bars he was standing on. "Well looky here." He teased. "You know, I was wondering why Luke was making that shine run all on his own, but now that I see where you've been spending your time, it all makes perfect sense."

Luke's jaw dropped open. "Shine run? What shine run? Are you out of your mind, Little?"

"I don't suppose you have an alibi for twelve o'clock today, do you?"

Luke's head bowed as he realized he was now the one being set up. "No, I don't. I was alone during that time, trying to make sense of what had just happened to Bo."

Little chuckled. "Ain't that a shame? You can deny it up and down, Duke, but I saw you cross into Chickasaw County with my own eyes. You know as well as I do what I'm talking about. Our little chase down Route 7, ending with you throwing all five jugs of shine out your window to try to destroy the evidence. It's a shame, too, 'cause it all would've worked if only that last bottle had smashed like the rest of them had. I guess lady luck was smiling down at me this time instead of you. I even have an eye witness besides me who can easily place you at the scene of the crime, and I've sent the remaining jug to our forensics' lab to pull your prints off from it. In the meantime, I have plenty evidence to arrest you and take you back into Chickasaw County." He waved his deputy over. "Read Mr. Duke his rights and get him cuffed and ready to be taken away."

Luke put his hands up, but began to back away. "Wait a minute, Little. Something very strange has been happening around here and we've got to try to work together to figure it all out. Please, just give us five minutes to talk to you and maybe we can get to the bottom of it."

"Sorry, no can do. I'm a busy man and have a very tight schedule." The deputy had reached Luke now and was turning him around to be patted down before being placed in handcuffs.

Rosco finally spoke up. "Just a second there. You have no right to take one of my Hazzard residents with you. He's gonna stay right here in Hazzard County's jail cells where he belongs. Once you get a full case against him, then we'll see about them papers you have."

"No we won't!" In the room marched Boss Hogg, almost seeming to appear out of nowhere.

Rosco looked over to his boss, confused. "We won't?"

Boss waved Rosco away in annoyance. "No, we won't. Why, Sheriff Little's come all this way to be nice enough to take Luke Duke off our hands. How can we deny him that after all the hard work he's done?" Boss seemed to be reeling in joy at the thought of both the Duke boys behind bars. "Besides, if them boys are kept apart, it'll cut down the chances of them scheming an escape plan and ruining everything." Boss popped his cigar in his mouth and approached Sheriff Little. "I'll take them papers for you, Little. Just show me where you need me to sign to take this here moonshiner out of my county."

Jesse marched straight up to Boss. "J.D! If I find out you had anything to do with this I'll…."

"Jesse Duke! How dare you accuse me of having any part in this? Why, I can't believe what I'm hearing. Here your boys have committed two crimes in two days, and you have the nerve to accuse me of some sort of conspiracy?" With that, he huffed and marched his way back through the door of his office.

Little set the papers down for Boss Hogg to sign. "Well, I can assure you that I saw Luke Duke with my own eyes as he was speeding down the road with the moonshine jugs in his possession. I don't see any way that Hogg could've made that happen against Luke's will. There wasn't any set up as far as I could see."

Luke glared back at Little after his hands had been cuffed behind him. "And you just happened to be there at the right time to see all of this?"

Sheriff Little thought for a moment. "Now that you mention it, no. I was given an anonymous tip that you would be crossing the county line to make a delivery, and sure enough, there you were." He smiled as he tucked the now signed papers into his shirt pocket. "You know, I almost gave up and went home after waiting for you for an hour. In fact, the only traffic I had on Route 7 all morning had been a delivery truck."

Luke's heart skipped a beat. "Delivery truck? Would it have been from a place called 'Hawthorne's'?

Little looked at Luke in surprise. "Yeah, it was. How did you know that? You were a good fifteen minutes behind that truck."

Luke looked at Cooter and Jesse. "That's it! That delivery truck is the key to this whole thing. You have to find that truck and find it fast. This is all connected somehow, I know it is. I'll bet my last dollar that the truck is being used to get the imposter General Lee from place to place without being seen until it's meant to be seen. That anonymous tip must've come from the culprit himself to be sure the sheriff was there to see it."

Cooter snapped his fingers. "I'm on it, and you can count on the rest of us getting to the bottom of all of this. You boys just hang in there until we figure this out. I promise it won't take long. They're starting to leave a trail now, and where there's a trail, there's a way right to 'em. I'm gone!"

Jesse stared helplessly from one of his nephews to the other. "I don't understand any of this. Why is this happening to you boys?"

Bo could only stand there as he watched what was taking place around him. He felt so useless, he wished there was some way he could help. He gave a pleading look to Jesse and shook his head. "I don't know, Uncle Jesse. I can't think of anyone who would do such a thing."

Even in the face of danger himself, Luke did his best to console his family around him. "Okay, everyone try to remain calm and just focus on what you need to do to get the whole truth to finally come out. I don't think I've got a lot of time before I have to leave here."

Jesse looked at Luke as if he were just remembering something. "Luke, do you have any idea about the shine jug Little mentioned?"

Luke sucked in his breath, remembering the missing shine bottle from the still sight. He nodded to Jesse. "If it happened as I'm thinking it happened, there's a good chance that the jug may have my prints on it. I did touch an empty jug this morning, but I promise you, Jesse, this whole thing's a set up. I never tried to deliver any shine this morning. You know that I would never do that, especially during the crisis our family was facing with Bo. A shine run was the last thing on my mind."

Jesse nodded. "I know that, Luke. I don't believe you're guilty anymore than I believe Bo is." He turned to Sheriff Little. "Ed Little, I understand that you have to do what you think is right, but I'm telling you now that you don't know the half of what's going on here, so keep an opened mind about all of this and be willing to accept some new evidence as it comes in. My boys are no more guilty of any crimes as you are. I also expect you to treat Luke fairly while you have him in your custody. I'll be by to see him as often as I can to keep an eye on things while he's there, too."

"You do what you have to, Jesse, but I can assure you I know what I saw. Luke was running shine this morning, no matter what he tells you. I saw him with my own eyes."

Surprisingly, Rosco had a strange question for Sheriff Little. "Did you see his face, Little, or did you only see him from behind?"

Little seemed taken aback for a moment. "Um, no. I didn't see him from the front, I saw him somewhat from the side and from the back. But I've seen him enough to recognize him when I see him, whether from the front or back, and it was him. Now," he said as he took Luke by the elbow. "I've wasted enough time here. If you need me you can reach me at my office. C'mon, Duke. It's time you get to see your new home away from home."

Luke made his hasty goodbyes as he was led away. Daisy's tears couldn't be held back any longer as she ran up to Luke and threw her arms around him. "Oh Luke! I don't know why this is happening, but I know we'll somehow figure it out and get you both out of this as soon as possible. I love you." She kissed him on the cheek.

"I love you too, sweetheart. Try not to worry. We'll get to the bottom of it all."

"Luke?" Bo called out from his cell.

"Hang in there, Bo. It'll be alright. Just try to keep a cool head, okay?"

Bo bit down on his lip as a tear welled up in his eye. "I will, Luke. I promise. You take care, now."

Jesse also gave him a quick hug before he was taken away. "You stay strong, boy." He said, placing his hands on Luke's shoulders to get one last good look at him. Jesse noticed a tear streaking down Luke's cheek. Knowing that Luke would never want anyone to see that, but being unable to wipe it away himself, Jesse helped him by rubbing the tear away while making it look like he was just brushing his cheek.

"Thank you, Uncle Jesse." Luke whispered, as he was taken through the doors and led away.

Daisy turned to Jesse and threw herself in his arms as she sobbed. Jesse stroked the back of her head with his hand. "Don't cry now, Daisy girl. Remember we promised Luke that we would get both him and Bo out of this. Now c'mon. We've got some investigating to do." He gently pushed her back to her feet and turned to Bo. "Daisy, Cooter and I won't rest a second until we figure this whole mess out, whether or not we get any help from the law around here." Jesse then threw a glaring look at Rosco, who had just leaned back against his desk, as if deep in thought.

"I know you will, Uncle Jesse." Bo replied.

Jesse went up to the cell and gave Bo as good a hug as possible through the bars. "We'll let you know the minute we find out any new information. Now that we have an idea of what we're looking for, it's only a matter of time before they make a mistake and get spotted." He smiled as he put his hand on Bo's shoulder and admonished him teasingly. "In the meantime, you be good."

Bo managed a smile as he nodded. "Yes, Sir. I will."

Jesse looked over at Rosco and Enos. "I hope you two boys have been listening to what's gone on in here today. Somewhere in Hazzard is someone who's robbing people, running shine and trying to frame my boys for it. I don't know why, but I know it's true. Now do your sworn duties and help to solve this case. Lord only knows who's next in all this, and we have to stop it before it goes any further."

Rosco didn't seem to hear Jesse at all, but Enos assured him that he would keep his eyes opened for anything suspicious. Jesse thanked Enos, then took Daisy's hand and led her out the door.


	5. Chapter 5

A few hours had passed. Enos had left to go talk once again to Ms. Harpswell to confirm for the record that she had seen the doors to the supposed General Lee open. Boss Hogg had left for the evening to go home to his wife, Lulu, and Rosco sat at his desk, deep in thought. That gnawing in his stomach was ten times worse now with the new events of the day, and at this point it was almost enough to make him nauseas. Two Dukes down in two days, with enough evidence to finally be rid of both of them for good, or so it appeared. Boss Hogg had seemed delighted by the turn of events, even whistled a happy little tune and wished Rosco a pleasant evening as he left, which never happened, and yet, Rosco still felt sick about the whole thing.

If Rosco had thought he felt skeptical about Bo being guilty, it was nothing compared to how he felt about the circumstances surrounding Luke. Here Luke was, with his best friend and cousin having just been sent to jail for a crime he had claimed he didn't commit, and Rosco was supposed to believe now that the next day Luke would be out on a shine run in Chickasaw County. No Sir, that definitely didn't sound logical to Rosco, although he would be hesitant to admit that aloud. There was a definite flaw in the slaw in that theory. As Luke had said himself, under the circumstances a shine run would have been the last thing on Luke's mind, and that made sense, even to Rosco.

So once again, the question remained as to how all the evidence so neatly and perfectly pointed directly to Luke and Bo. Boss had said that it would have taken a team of experts to pin the robbery yesterday on Bo, and he assumed the same theory would apply to Luke's thwarted shine run. Sheriff Little, much like Esther Harpswell, had no reason to lie about witnessing Luke in his county and Rosco was fairly certain that it had gone down exactly as Little had claimed. He had even said that he had a jug that would be sure to have Luke's fingerprints on them, proving that he had, in fact, thrown the jug from the car. Unless, of course, it was part of the plan of this supposed 'team of experts' that was hard at work pinning the perfect frame. Now the mystery remained as to who would do this, and why. Why, why, why?

"Why what?" asked Bo, sitting on the cot in his cell with his back leaned up on a pillow against the bars.

Rosco hadn't realized that he had been talking aloud, and he had forgotten altogether about Bo being in the stall right next to his desk, so the sound of another voice in the room startled Rosco and caused him to jump.

"Dang it, Bo. Don't you go hollering out at me. You trying to give me a heart attack?"

Bo chuckled a little, "Sorry, Rosco. I thought you were talking to me."

"Now, why would I be talking to you?"

"Maybe because I'm the only other person in the room." Bo smiled at him once again. "Never mind, I won't interrupt while you talk to yourself. Just let me know if you decide you are talking to me so I'll know to be listening." He then closed his eyes and pressed his head back against the pillow, trying to get comfortable.

Rosco stood and took a few steps toward Bo's cell. "And don't you go getting too comfy in that cell, now. It won't be too much longer before I bring ya downstairs for the night."

Bo opened one eye to be sure that Rosco was talking to him this time. "Don't worry about that." He answered, closing his eyes again.

"Good." Rosco paced a little, and then turned back to Bo. He decided to test the waters a bit to see what would happen. "Won't be too much longer before you ain't gonna be my problem anymore, either, so what do you think about that?"

The last remark caused Bo to open both his eyes this time. He sat up a bit, "What do I think about that? Rosco, you know what I think about that. It's a danged set up is what I think. Heck, it's what I know!" He then stood and walked up closer to Rosco and pointed his finger at him. "Luke and me never did none of them things we've been accused of, and whoever says we did is a danged liar!" He shook his head in disbelief. "Rosco, didn't you hear any of what happened in here today? Didn't you hear about the delivery truck, the doors opening on The General, no one actually seeing Luke and me from the front? Doesn't any of that seem just a little bit fishy to you?"

"It all sounded like circumstantial evidence to me." Rosco answered.

Bo's shoulders slumped slightly. "Why should I expect anything different from you? It's not like you ever had any real police intuition anyways. Uncle Jesse's always says that Enos is the only real law we have in this county, and I guess he's right about that, seeing how Enos is the only one out looking for any other clues at the moment."

Now it was Rosco's turn to point his finger. "Now just you hold on there, Bo. Don't you go talking to me like that. I'm the sheriff here and I deserve some respect."

Bo grimaced at him, but held his tongue. Years of being taught by Jesse to respect his elders prevented him from continuing that conversation any further.

Rosco nodded his head at him. "That's better. You know, I get mighty tired of people in this town treating me like I'm some sort of idiot. I've been upholding the law in these parts for over twenty five years. I have plenty of police intuition and I don't need the likes of you telling me how to do my job." Rosco walked back to his desk and leaned against the edge of it. "I have a mind of my own, you know. I can think for myself. I'm not stupid."

Bo looked at the floor for a moment. "I never said you were stupid, Rosco."

"Well you didn't have to say it. I knew you were thinking it. Police intuition, you know."

Bo was quiet for a moment, then responded. "I know a little bit about people thinking you're not very smart. I get that a lot."

"You do?"

"Sure. Especially when I was still in school. It wasn't easy following behind Luke and Daisy, who were really book smart. A lot of my teachers had it in their heads that I should be as smart as they were, and they were sure quick to point out how disappointed they were with me when I didn't learn things as quick as they did." Bo seemed lost in thought for a while, and then he shrugged. "But I guess none of that matters now anyways." He then looked up at Rosco and smiled. "So, I guess I can relate to how you feel." Bo then turned and paced a few steps in his cell.

Rosco seemed to calm down for a moment, "Well, I'm sorry for that, Bo. I didn't know it was like that for you."

"Yeah, that's okay. Luke is the smart one, everyone knows that. I never claimed to be as smart as him anyways." Not wanting to get off the subject, Bo turned it back. "But I'm smarter than to break into someone's house and steal from them, and I know Luke is smarter than what he's been accused of doing. Why is it so hard for you to believe that we're innocent?"

Rosco sighed heavily and folded his arms across his chest. "Bo, it's not that simple. Evidence is evidence and whether you want to admit it or not, there's a lot of evidence that points to you boys this time. I can't just look the other way. Besides, you're forgetting about Sheriff Little. Even if I did believe you, and I'm not saying that's the case, he has an entire case against Luke that's just as strong as the one we've got against you, and you know he's not gonna look the other way."

At that moment, Enos walked through the door holding a paper bag. "Hey yall. Phew! It sure is a scorcher out there tonight. I brought us all some nice cold ice cream for a dessert tonight." Setting the bag down on the Rosco's desk, Enos took out some dishes. "Here's your butter pecan, Sheriff, and I got my cherry ripple. Bo, I wasn't sure what your favorite was, but I figured everyone likes chocolate, so I got you a dish of that."

Bo smiled. "Thanks Enos. That was sure nice of you. I love chocolate ice cream." He and Rosco exchanged quick glances, indicating that their conversation would have to wait for another time. Bo did have to ask Enos one thing though, "Has anyone uncovered anything about the delivery truck or the other General Lee?"

"No, nothing yet, but I heard Cooter putting the information out on the Hazzard Net three times tonight. I don't think there's anyone left in Hazzard that won't have their eyes peeled for them." He gave an encouraging smile. "Try not to worry, Bo. If there's any information out there that will clear you and Luke, we will find it somehow."

Bo managed a smile back to Enos, however, his face didn't seem to hold the same optimism as Enos' did. Bo took his dish of ice cream back to his cot and once again made himself comfortable. His thoughts turned to Luke, and he could only hope that he was doing okay in the Chickasaw County jail. He sighed as he realized that there was nothing he could do for Luke, and knew he would have to wait until Jesse or Daisy either called or went to see him before Bo would know for sure how he was holding up.

It was much later in the evening now. Enos had brought Bo to the downstairs cell before he left for the evening, and Rosco had pulled the cot out from the upstairs cell to stretch out on for the night. Rosco had taken tonight's shift and Enos would be on duty overnight tomorrow. Rosco was just about to turn in for the night, when the phone rang. Rosco frowned and looked at the clock…it was close to midnight.

'Must be Boss checking up on me,' thought Rosco as he picked up the receiver. Instead of Boss, he heard a strange voice on the phone.

"Hello, Coltrane. I hope I didn't wake ya."

Rosco froze as he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stiffen. "Who is this?"

The man on the other end of the phone line laughed a little. "What? You don't recognize me? I'm hurt."

"Listen, I don't know who you think you are, but I'm not…"

"Oh yes you are, and you're gonna hear everything I have to say. I spent two years of my life thinking about how I was going to get back at all of you for what you did. As you can see, so far my plan is working perfectly."

Rosco was trying very hard to control his breathing and keep his voice in check, but on the inside he could feel his heart trying to pound its way through his chest. "What plan are you talking about?"

Another chuckle, "Oh Coltrane, I thought perhaps you'd be a little smarter by now, but I can see that's just never gonna happen. I'm talking about the plan to take care of you and those Duke boys for good. The first two stages of my plan have been carried out, and now it's almost time for the third. By the way, did you enjoy your ice cream tonight?"

Rosco could feel the blood draining from his face, and he instinctively started looking around the jailhouse as if expecting to see someone looking back at him. "You've been close enough to be watching me?"

"Oh yes. You know what they say. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, and I plan to keep you very close until I'm finished with you." There was one last chuckle from the caller, then "Sweet dreams, Coltrane. And say goodnight to the Duke boy downstairs for me."

Rosco continued to hold the receiver in his hand for about fifteen seconds after the dial tone began, and then he threw it down and hurried down the stairs. "Bo!" he called out as he reached the bottom of the stairwell and crashed through the doorway. "Bo, are you okay? Wake up!"

Bo rolled lazily over from his side to his stomach. "Ten more minutes, Luke." He answered in his sleep as he put his pillow over his head. Within seconds snoring could be heard. Rosco sighed in relief as he realized that the caller hadn't done any harm to his prisoner. He stood quietly for a moment as he waited for his breathing to calm and his heart to return to a somewhat normal rate. Rosco went back upstairs to be sure that all the doors and windows were locked up there, and then returned downstairs.

Rosco pulled the cot from the second cell so that it was half in and half out the cell door, then sat down on it while facing the stairwell with his gun drawn. There would be no way there would be anyone sneaking up on them tonight. Any ideas of sleep went right out the window with that phone call. He was on full watch duty tonight. He smirked at Bo as he watched him sleep. "What do you think of my police intuition now, boy?" he quietly said, "I do uphold my sworn duty to protect the public, and right now that public is your sorry hide and you don't even know I'm doing it." Bo had no response as he continued to snore away. Rosco couldn't help but smile. "And you're welcome, by the way."


	6. Chapter 6

Jesse and Daisy were up at the crack of dawn the following morning to get the chores finished so they could take a trip to Chickasaw County to visit Luke and bring him some fresh clothes and his toothbrush. Cooter pulled in the yard just as they were about to leave and he joined them. While they were out and about, they also decided to take a trip to Capital City's library to see if they could find any information regarding Hawthorne's Furniture Store, and where that company may be based from. If they could give Hawthorne's a call, someone there was sure to know what one of their trucks was doing in Hazzard County.

Sheriff Little met the Dukes and Cooter in the lobby and brought Luke out to sit with them for a visit. "You've got about fifteen minutes." He stated as he sat down at a nearby desk with his shotgun on his lap.

Daisy and Jesse gave Luke a hug, while Cooter clapped him on the shoulder. "How're you holding up?" Cooter asked.

"I'm fine, how's Bo?"

Jesse snickered a bit, in spite of the situation. "I called him this morning and he's as worried about you as you are him. He wanted to make sure I told you that he says he's fine and to just focus on getting out and getting things back to normal."

Luke blew out a deep breath and shook his head slightly. "To be honest with you, I'm starting to get real worried for the both of us. Time's running out fast, and we still haven't been able to get a real break in this case yet."

Daisy hated the sound of defeat in Luke's voice. He had always been the one to come up with the plans to solve any situation, and it was killing her to hear the pain in his voice now. She tried hard to be reassuring. "Try not to worry, Luke. Everyone in Hazzard is looking for the truck and car, or any other clues that could prove your innocence. Enos was out a lot last night trying to uncover any new leads as well. With all the people you and Bo have out there trying to help, there's just got to be a way that this whole mess gets settled."

Luke smiled slightly. "Well, just make sure to let the good people of Hazzard know that Bo and me sure do appreciate everything they're trying to do for us. It sure is a comfort to know that we have their support with this."

Jesse hated to bring up the subject, but it was inevitable anyway. Turning to Little, he asked "Have you got the lab results back yet on the fingerprints?"

Sheriff Little's head turned toward Jesse, although it was always difficult to see if he was making eye contact behind those dark glasses he always wore. "Yes we did. Those prints did match Luke's, just as I said they would."

Luke began to lose his temper and his voice rose a bit. "And I already told you that I did touch a jug that morning, so it doesn't surprise me that the prints matched. It still doesn't mean that I was the one you were chasing. Whoever it is that set me up for this stole the jug and used it to frame me, same as they framed Bo the day before."

Little sighed and shook his head, looking very bored with the conversation. "I think we covered this topic enough last night, don't you, Duke? Aren't you tired of singing the same song over and over again?"

"I'll keep singing it until we find the real people responsible for this."

Little leaned forward in his chair, "I hear one more word like that from you, and your visit will be over and you'll be back in your cell. Do I make myself clear?"

Luke fumed for a moment, and then seemed to settle down a bit. "Yes, you do, Sir."

Luke's family and friend continued the conversation; distracting Luke from any further confrontations will the sheriff and getting back to the business at hand. They discussed going to the library to research the furniture store and also trying to get the word out to the citizens of Chickasaw County for some help, as the delivery truck and imposter General were also there. Luke agreed that those were very good ideas, and asked that they keep him posted in their findings, adding that he didn't think he had very much time left in Chickasaw before they sent him to the larger facility in Atlanta. "It will be either later today or tomorrow when they come to get me." Luke bowed his head again. "Gosh, time seems to be really running out."

"Either way, you boys will have the right to a fair trial, and along with that we'll be given a lawyer for both of you. Even after you are sent to Atlanta, we'll still have some time to gather evidence." Jesse lowered his head a little as he continued. "We just won't have the opportunities to sit and talk to you and Bo after you're sent there, Atlanta's a long drive from Hazzard."

Jesse, Cooter and Daisy rode a few miles in silence as they left the jail. They stopped at the library and learned that Hawthorne's Furniture Company had a corporation in Atlanta, and their warehouse was owned by J.S. Industries. They also obtained a phone number and planned to continue their investigation once they got home to a phone. As their long morning rolled into the afternoon, they decided to stop at a diner in Capital City for some lunch.

They took a seat at a booth near the door and looked over the menus. Cooter was facing into the restaurant, and because he was a people watcher by nature anyway, he enjoyed observing the other patrons as they ate and held conversations of their own. As he looked over the scene before him, the sight of one particular man kept bringing Cooter's gaze back in his direction. He had noticed him earlier, as the man had stood and asked the waitress for a second cup of coffee. There was something familiar about him, although Cooter had gotten a good look at his face and he was pretty certain that he'd never met the man before. Cooter frowned a bit and continued to study him. It was going to drive him crazy until he made the connection. He looked to be about thirty, maybe thirty five, had longer sandy blonde hair, dark eyes with a ruddy complexion and stood a little over six feet tall. He was dressed in very nice clothing with a light suede jacket and wing tipped shoes.

It seemed as though Cooter's mystery was going to go unsolved, as the gentleman had received his check and was headed to the check out register to pay his tab. Another man stood with him, who Cooter hadn't seen until just now as his view had been blocked until he stood. A light bulb seemed to go off in Cooter's head as he made the connection. The second man with him also seemed to be in his mid thirties, had dark hair and stood about six feet tall. He also was dressed very nicely with a suit jacket and black slacks. As both men stood at the register with their backs toward them, Cooter nudged Jesse.

Pointing to the men in question, "Hey Uncle Jesse, from the back, who would you say them two fellas there looked like?"

Jesse's mouth dropped open. "Lord have mercy! From the back they look just like the boys! It's gotta be them!" Jesse abruptly stood and headed for the register with Cooter close behind him. Daisy also rose, but Jesse stopped her, telling her to stay put as this could get messy. Reluctantly, she sat back down.

The men had just walked out the door of the diner as Cooter and Jesse caught up with them. "Excuse me," Jesse called out. "Do you fellas mind if we ask you a couple questions?"

The blond turned as he was just about to open his car door. The car was a rental, with Atlanta plates. Smiling, he answered, "Sure, as long as it's not for directions. We're not from around here."

Jesse continued, smiling back. "No, no, it's not for directions. Do you mind telling me where you're from, though? You're dressed way to fine to be from these parts."

"Actually, we're both from New York City. We're actors, and we've just auditioned for a part in a new film project."

A surprised look crossed Cooter's face. "A film project? In Hazzard County?"

The two strangers exchanged confused glances with each other, "I'm sorry," The brunette continued, "Was there something we could do for you?"

Jesse realized that this would seem like a strange conversation, so he backed up a bit. Holding out his hand, he introduced himself. The men seemed to relax a bit, each accepting Jesse's and Cooter's handshakes. They learned that the blonde's name was Alan and the brunette's was Jeff. They had received casting calls for parts in a supposed new movie, and were told by their agents to take the next flight to Atlanta for auditions.

Now it was Jesse and Cooter's turn to exchange confused glances. "Did anything seem different about the auditions? Were you on a movie set somewheres?" Cooter asked.

Alan rubbed the back of his neck, seeming to be feeling the heat. "It was different, but we were told ahead of time that it was for a new type of film. The cameras were built into the set, so they wouldn't get in the way of the action. Also, we were to do all the stunts ourselves, so we had to be in pretty good shape." Alan smiled "Mine wasn't too tough, but Jeff had to actually jump a car over a creek!"

Jeff nodded. "Yeah, I was a little skeptical about that part at first, but it turned out just fine. Mine was a chase scene with the police and I had to jump the car to escape. They gave me this great old Dodge Charger with a souped up engine to use." He made a flying gesture with his hand, "That car sailed across that creek like a dream. It was quite beautiful, if I must say. I think I did pretty well."

Alan cringed a bit. "I did okay, but they kept changing parts of mine at the last minute, even slapping some paint on my hand and cutting a tear in a pair of jeans I was wearing." He shook his head. "I guess they were still tinkering with the details as I auditioned. The only bad part was, I think I messed it up at the end."

Jesse's eyes narrowed a little as this incredible story began to unfold. "Really? How so?"

"Well," Alan continued, "I was supposed to climb in through the window of my getaway car, but with all the last minute changes they gave me I messed it up and opened the door." He shrugged. "I asked them if they wanted me to take the shot over again, but they told me 'no'. Hopefully it didn't matter too much."

Jesse flinched a little. "When you say, 'they', who are you talking about?"

"The casting directors. They're based out of Atlanta. My agent said they are a new company and this will be their first big project, which is fine with me, as I usually just do small parts and local commercials anyway."

Cooter sucked in his breath slightly. This was all just too much to sink in. He wasn't sure whether or not to believe these guys, but they both seemed so genuine and innocent in the whole thing, he almost hated to tell them what had really gone down. He removed his hat and scratched his head a bit. "Um, listen yall. I don't know how to tell you this but….."

Cooter and Jesse both let the flood gates open and poured their hearts out to them, telling them the entire story and what it had done to their family. Both men seemed to be in shock as they listened to what they were being told. When all was said and done, Jeff was the first one to speak.

"Listen, we don't want any trouble, nor did we intentionally break any laws. Everything we told you was the truth, I swear to God, and we had nothing to do with anything illegal."

Alan proceeded. "That's right. In fact, I didn't really steal any money. I gave it to the driver of the truck after I pulled the car into it, and he put it in another car made up the same as mine to use for the next audition."

"No," Jesse answered. "He put that money in my nephew's car to frame him for stealing the money that you took for them. I'm sorry, son, I'm afraid that both of you were used to set up my family for crimes that would land them in prison for ten years apiece. We need you to come with us and tell the police what happened to help clear them of all of this."

Alan and Jeff's eyes almost popped out of their heads. Instinctively they backed up a bit and put their hands up. "Now wait just a minute. We'd love to help you, we really would," Alan started, "But we both have wives and kids to think about, and we've already told you that we had nothing to do with intentionally setting anyone up for anything. We also have a plane we need to catch within the hour. I'm afraid we can't come with you."

Jeff continued. "Listen," he said as he took a business card out of his wallet. "Here is the name and phone number of mine and Alan's agent. Give him a call and hopefully he can give you all the information you need about who it was who contacted him about all this." He handed it to Jesse. "Now, like Alan said, we'd love to stay and help you, but we really do have to go. I hope it all works out for you, I really do."

Jesse and Cooter felt helpless as they watched the men get into their car and drive away. They had no authority to demand that the gentlemen come with them, and there was no way they could force the issue any further. Cooter looked at Jesse. "What do you think? Were they telling the truth?"

Jesse nodded as he watched the car disappear down the road. "Believe it or not, Cooter, I do think they were telling the truth." Looking at the business card in his hand, he added "Let's just hope this card holds the key to solving this case once and for all. Let's go get Daisy and head home. It ain't gonna be easy, but we gotta tell Rosco and Enos what just happened here. Hopefully this time they'll take us more seriously."

It had been a rough night for Rosco. He was still wide awake when Enos arrived and trudged downstairs at seven a.m. with coffee and donuts. "Good Morning Sheriff." Enos greeted as he set the bag on the cot in front of him, smiling ear to ear. "Good morning, Bo. I brought you both some breakfast, hope you're hungry." Bo yawned as stretched as he was just beginning to awaken, and the smell of fresh coffee and sugary donuts also put a smile on his face. "Morning, Enos." Bo answered as he sat up and reached for the cup that Enos was handing to him through the bars.

Rosco wished Enos a good morning as well as he took his cup. Looking over at Bo, he jeered, "Sleep well?"

Bo scratched his head as he took his first sip. "Yeah, actually I did." He then looked at the cot pulled out and realized that Rosco had been settled on it. He looked up at Rosco with a stunned look on his face. "Did you sleep down here last night?"

Not wanting to tell Bo about the phone call, he lied "Yeah, well, it was hot last night and it's cooler downstairs. Besides, I figured I needed to keep you under close surveillance to be sure you didn't try any funny business down here."

Bo rolled his eyes, but kept quiet as he took a huge bite of powdered donut. Enos watched the sheriff closely, and then asked "Did you get any sleep at all last night, sheriff?"

"No, not much at all. I may have dozed off for about twenty minutes, but I just couldn't sleep a wink." He then stood and put his boots back on. "Anyway, I need to head out and see Boss for a bit this morning, Enos. You stay here with Bo and keep guard on him. Feel free to bring him back to the cell upstairs for the day so you can get some paperwork done. I'm sure Bo's family will be in sometime to see him anyway."

Enos smiled. "Okay, and if you want to take a few hours this afternoon and try to get a nap in, that would be fine with me. I can cover for ya."

Rosco seemed too wrapped up in thought to respond, and he headed up the stairs. Bo and Enos looked at each other and shrugged as they watched Rosco walk away.

Rosco nervously knocked on the door of Boss's house. Normally he wouldn't bother Boss at home, but Rosco knew that the information he had about the phone call last night couldn't wait until later. Boss answered the door with a look of surprise, then disgust. "Rosco, you pea brain, if you tell me that Bo Duke escaped, I swear to you I'll….."

"No, Boss," Rosco interrupted, "It's not that." He took off his hat and held it nervously in his hands. "Can I come in for a minute? It's real important that I talk to you."


	7. Chapter 7

_**This is a shorter chapter, but again I think it gives some information. I've been messaged by some Luke fans that I'm paying more attention to Bo, and for that I apologize. I have to admit that I do find it's easier to dialogue for Bo because he was the more talkative one, but as you will see by the last line of this chapter, Luke comes back into play very soon. Again, thank you for all the great reviews and messages. I'm so glad the story is turning out okay as I had wondered if it would keep people's attention…We'll also find out who the culprit is in the next chapter, I'm shocked that no one's guessed it by now, or at least they haven't told me if they did.**_

_**I do not own any rights to the Dukes of Hazzard or any of its characters.**_

When Rosco finished telling Boss Hogg about his disturbing phone call, Boss tried to shrug it off as a hoax. "It was probably Jesse or Cooter calling to make you think that there's someone out there trying to frame the Duke Boys. I wouldn't put it past either one of them to do something like that."

Rosco shook his head. "No, Boss. I'm sure it wasn't either of them. I would've recognized their voices. No, this phone call, you see, it was creepy, you know, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up."

Boss scoffed at that. "Rosco, spiders make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up."

Under different circumstances, Rosco would just take Boss's abuse as it had become part of his daily routine, but today he really needed Boss to listen to him and take him seriously. He took a deep breath and paced back and forth as he began to speak. "Listen, Boss, I really need you to hear what I'm saying now. I know we've been racking our brains for years thinking of different ways to get the Dukes behind bars and out of our hair, and if this were one of your schemes, it would be a different story. But you see, I think that there really is someone out there trying to get the boys, and maybe even get me. And I also believe that this fella could be dangerous. I'm not sure exactly why, but I've had a knot in my stomach for three days now, and the more time that goes by the worse it gets. I heard this man's voice last night, and he said that I should know who he was, but I gotta admit that I was distracted by how vicious he sounded and I couldn't figure out who he was." He turned to face Boss now. "Boss, I'm telling ya, I really do think that if I don't handle this right, this man could really prove to be dangerous. I wouldn't ask if I wasn't pretty sure. I need your help, Boss."

Boss stood quietly as he listened to Rosco speak. The more he heard, the more convinced he became that Rosco may actually have a point. Every other attempt to put the Dukes away behind bars had been set up by Boss himself, and truth be told, the idea of someone else behind this scared him. He knew that none of his plans would every physically harm either one of the Dukes, but with someone else, he had no guarantees that no one would be hurt, or worse. As much as the idea appealed to him to be rid of Bo and Luke for the next ten years, the idea of one of them getting hurt was something he didn't want to think about. He finally looked up at Rosco and nodded. "Okay, Rosco. If you feel that strongly about this, then we'll look into it and try to figure out who could be behind this." Then, not believing he was actually asking this, "Where do you think we should start?"

"Well, yesterday Jesse was saying something about a delivery truck from a Hawthorne's Furniture store. That seems like the most logical place to start."

Boss agreed. "Yeah, yeah. That does sound like a good idea. You get started on that, and let me know what you find out. I'm gonna make myself decent here and go over to my office at The Boar's Nest. We'll plan to meet there at noon to check in with each other."

Rosco nodded and hurried toward the door. "Okay, we'll plan to meet at high noon! Coot, coot, I love it. It's a regular Perry Mason mystery to solve." He smiled as he stood in the doorway. Turning to Boss, his smile fading but the light still in his eyes, "Oh and Boss? I really want to thank you."

"What for?"

"For trusting in me." Rosco then walked out the door and closed it behind him.

Enos's day was going fairly well. It was only twelve thirty and he was already ahead of schedule with his paperwork. We was secretly grateful that he was the one who was on guard duty for Bo today, as this gave him all the time he needed to be all caught up with his clerical responsibilities without having to let Rosco know he was falling behind with them. He had just closed his notebook and was about to ask Bo what he wanted for lunch, when a call came over the CB. "This is an emergency call for any police or doctor who may be listening. Is anyone out there? Please come back!"

This call immediately got the attention of both Enos and Bo as Enos quickly went to the CB on the desk. "This is Deputy Enos Strate. How can I help you, Sir?"

"Thank you, Deputy. It seems there's been an accident on Rte 7 near the Hazzard line. There's a white jeep on its side down an embankment. I can't get down to it, but I can see people down there and it looks like they're hurt. I can't see the whole license plate of the vehicle, but the last three numbers are 6-3-0."

A look of horror flowed over Bo's face. "Enos, that's Daisy's jeep! She has them numbers on her license plate!"

Enos tried to remain calm as he again answered the caller. "Okay, thank you. I'm on my way and will dispatch an ambulance as well."

"Please hurry, officer. They really need help."

Enos frantically tried to reach either Rosco or Boss, but was unable to get in touch with them. "Where could they be?" He cried, "I have to get in touch with them!"

Bo was beside himself with worry. "Enos, please go and see what happened. Please, they need your help!"

Enos had a pleading look in his eyes. "I….I'm not supposed to leave my post by you, Bo. I was told to stay here. Oh why isn't Rosco answering me?"

"Enos, listen to me. You have to go. My family could be really hurt out there. Please, Enos, I'm begging you. I swear to God I will be fine here while you're gone. Please go!"

Enos nodded. He knew he had no other choice than to leave and go to the accident. "Okay, Bo. You just try not to worry. Just listen for the CB. When I find out what's happening I will let you know." With that, Enos ran out the door.

Bo was still pacing back and forth in his cell a few minutes later when he heard the doors open. He anxiously watched the entranceway to see who it was that was coming, and was surprised to see another man in uniform entering the room. He looked like a police officer, but from a different city.

The man looked around the room, only to see Bo staring back at him. "I'm looking for either Rosco Coltrane or Enos Strate." He told Bo.

Bo looked him up and down for a moment, and then answered. "Um, they're not here right now. Enos has been called to the scene of an accident, and I'm not sure where the Sheriff is."

The man frowned. "Well, I'm here from Atlanta Corrections Department, and I'm here to collect a Mr. Bo Duke. I'm assuming that's you?"

A second look of panic came over Bo. "Yes, Sir, that's me, but I can't go yet. No one's here to release me."

The man smiled, giving Bo an eerie feeling. "Oh, that's okay. I don't need anyone here to release you." He walked over to Enos' desk and lifted up a piece of paper. "I called ahead, and Deputy Strate said he would have all the paperwork signed and ready for me. All it needs now is my signature and your transfer will be all finalized and legal." He scribbled something on the piece of paper and held it for Bo to see, although he was too far away for Bo to be able to read it. "Here we are, all done. Now, let's see about getting you ready to be transported." He took a few steps toward Bo's cell.

Bo's began breathing heavily. "Please, mister, you don't understand. Enos just got called away to an accident that I think my cousin and uncle were in. Please just let me stay long enough to hear if they're alright. It will only be a short while."

The officer shook his head. "I'm sorry, Duke, but I'm really on a tight schedule. I'm sure everything will be fine with your family. I'm pretty sure they're all safe and sound." Then his tone turned cold and malicious. "In fact, it's probably them who should be worried about you."

Again the man gave Bo a smile and this time it actually sent a chill up Bo's spine. Bo's face paled. "What makes you say that?"

The officer took his gun from his holster. "Enough talking. Right now you need to come to me, turn around and place your hands behind you." With his free hand, he took his handcuffs off his belt and waved for Bo to come to him.

Bo froze. "You're not from any corrections building in Atlanta, are you?"

"I said enough talking. Now move it, before you're the one who needs an ambulance!"

Bo slowly came toward him and turned, placing his hands behind his back. Reaching through the bars, the man cuffed Bo's hands behind him. "Now stand still while I unlock your cell. One false move from you and I'll shoot you right where you stand. Understood?"

Bo nodded. He could feel his body start to shake when something occurred to him. "Wait! Does this mean that there wasn't an accident? And you didn't really sign any paperwork either, did you?"

He could hear chuckling behind him. "You are pretty slow, aren't you?" At this point the cell door had been unlocked and Bo could feel a tight grip on his arm. "Come on, genius. Let's get going."

Bo was led outside to a van parked directly in front of the police headquarters. As they walked along the side of it, another gentleman exited the van from the driver's side door. Once they approached the driver, Bo dug his feet into the ground with a shocked look of recognition on his face. "You!" Bo hollered. "You're behind all this?"

The driver started to laugh. "And you and your cousin thought you were both so clever a few years ago when you turned me over to your no-good sheriff and shipped me off to prison." He leaned close to Bo's face. "Feeling clever now, are you?"

Bo felt himself get shoved hard against the side of the van, as a blindfold was put across his eyes and tied very tightly behind his head. "Why are you blindfolding me now? I've already seen your face?" Then as the cloth was secured around his head, Bo yelped a bit. "Argh! That's too tight! It's killing my eyes!"

Bo was turned toward the driver and held tightly by both forearms for a moment. "Aw! You're breaking my heart, Duke! And I'm putting this on you because you can still run with your arms cuffed behind you, but not so well when you can't see where you're going. Enjoy your ride." With that, he was shoved toward the back of the van. A moment later, the back doors of the van were opened and Bo was pulled up into it and was seated on a bench along the inside. Immediately, he was fastened down and against the side of the van and the straps were pulled very tight. As the doors closed, Bo started screaming. "You can't do this! Let me out!" and started thrashing and kicking to try to get free.

Suddenly, Bo heard another voice coming from inside the van. "Take it easy, Bo, just calm down. Try to save some strength. We'll probably need it soon enough."

Bo gasped and froze….. "Luke?" he whispered.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Well, here's the answer to the 'who done it' part of the story. I hope it doesn't turn out to be a let down. The character portrayed in that episode of Dukes always stuck in my mind as particularly vicious and even a little smart, so for me he was the obvious choice for a comeback villain. Hopefully you all remember him as well as I did. **_

_**SLIGHT SPOILER; And no, it's not Huey, but good guess!**_

Jesse, Daisy and Cooter made it back to the Duke farm in record time. They all immediately went inside to make their necessary phone calls to continue investigating their newest leads. After finding some very solid leads, they decided it was time they went to find Rosco and Enos and tell them what they'd discovered. They just prayed it would finally be enough to make them listen to them and take their pleas seriously. As the three of them piled back into Daisy's jeep, Cooter got on the CB to try to track down either of their law enforcers. A tip courtesy of the Hazzard Net informed them that Rosco's patrol car was sitting in the parking lot of the Boar's Nest. Jesse shrugged his shoulders as he stared straight ahead, "That's as good a place to state our case as any." he declared.

Meanwhile, Rosco and Boss were just finishing up their noontime meeting to share whatever information they had found, which didn't turn out to be a lot. Rosco had also discovered that Hawthorne's Furniture Co was indeed owned by J.S Industries in Atlanta, and that their records didn't show any deliveries being made two days ago in Hazzard, or yesterday in Chickasaw, and they only had one delivery truck which hadn't left Atlanta, so Rosco couldn't help but think that was strange. Rosco and Boss were just about to wrap up when Cooter, Jesse and Daisy caught up with them.

Jesse led the way into Boss's office, not bothering to knock before he stormed in. "J.D, we need to talk to you and Rosco about my boys' case…and this time, you're gonna sit there and you're gonna listen to what we've got to say."

Boss, never wanting to admit to Jesse that he had actually just decided to help, jumped to his feet, acting very indignant. "Listen here, Jesse, you got no right to barge into my office like that making demands of me. I oughta have Rosco here throw you out, or better yet arrest you for trespassing."

Daisy was the next to speak, "Boss, please, you've got to listen to what we have to say. It's real important. We've just come from both Chickasaw County and Capital City, and we've found out a lot of information that points to someone else who we know is behind all of this. If we all work together, we can sort this whole thing out and find the real criminals."

Rosco, secretly very relieved to hear that some new evidence had been found and wanting very much to know what it was still couldn't help but try to sound annoyed with the Dukes. "Alright. Why don't you just tell me what information you could have possibly found? Although I'm sure there's another explanation to all of it."

Cooter held out the business card that Alan and Jeff had provided for them. "For starters, we actually talked to the two men that were posing as Bo and Luke at the crime scenes. They thought they had been hired as actors to play roles in some sort of new action movie. The whole time they were framing the boys, they thought they were auditioning for their parts. They claim they had no idea anything was wrong in what they were doing. We didn't have any authority to hold them, and they had to leave to catch a flight back to their homes in New York City, but they did give the name of their agent. As it turns out, their agent was contacted by a 'John Smith', and he said he was from J.S Film Industries. Now, we just found out that J.S Industries also owns…"

"Hawthorne's Furniture Company." Rosco finished.

Both the Dukes and Cooter stared at Rosco in shock. "That's right." Cooter said in disbelief. "Well, I'll be…look who's gone and done his homework,"

Daisy smiled at Cooter, but continued giving the information they had uncovered. "We tried to call the number for J.S Film Industries that the agent had provided, but it had been disconnected. Another interesting thing is, when we called Hawthorne's back, the woman on the phone had no idea who John Smith was. She claims they are a very small furniture store that only makes local deliveries to Atlanta residents. She also said they are owned and managed by Michael Hawthorne, but was financed by a Mr. Jeremy Steelson, and that must be what the J.S stands for. She said Mr. Steelson is a fairly prominent businessman in Atlanta and he backs several companies in the area." Daisy then smiled, "I somehow managed to keep her talking and while I was fishing for some more details, she said the strangest thing to me."

Now Boss was intrigued. "What did she say?"

"She said that up until two years ago, Mr. Steelson had a brother who was a silent partner with him, until he got in trouble with the law and served two years in Atlanta prison. Oddly enough, he just got released about three months ago."

Boss raised his eyebrows. "Did she mention any name?"

Daisy frowned and shook her head 'no'. "But that's got to be something, right? It's got to be enough to make you finally believe that Bo and Luke had nothing to do with those crimes they were accused of!"

Rosco's face turned an ash color as he slowly rose from his chair. His eyes almost seemed to glaze over, as if he had suddenly gone far away in thought.

Jesse noticed Rosco's expression and stood beside him. "Rosco," he said gently, "Have you thought of something?"

Rosco turned to face everyone and swallowed hard. He took his hat off and fidgeted with the rim of it as he held it with both hands. His voice seemed to quiver as he spoke. "I'm afraid I have, Jesse, and if I'm thinking who I think I'm thinking of…..it's not good." He took a deep breath and shook his head apologetically. "I swear I never would've gotten any of you or myself involved with him if I'd known just how dangerous he could be. And now, the more I think of it, all the evidence points to him. He even had a replica made up of The General Lee, so it all makes perfect sense now." His eyes suddenly opened wide as he remembered the phone call last night. He started to hurry toward the door. "We've got to get back to the jail to warn Enos and Bo about him."

Boss grabbed Rosco by the arm to stop him. "Wait a second, wait a second. Who are you talking about?"

Jesse's eyes also had the same glazed look as Rosco's did. "_**Jason Steel**_! Rosco's talking about that no good bounty hunter private detective he hired from Atlanta to get the boys." He turned to Rosco, grabbing his other arm. "That's who you're talking about, ain't it Rosco?"

Rosco broke down. "Yes! Yes, that's who I'm talking about." Rosco looked at Boss, who still looked confused. "Remember when I thought I'd inherited that ten million dollars? He was the one I hired to frame the Duke boys and ship them off to prison to get them out of my hair once and for all."

Boss seemed haunted by the memory himself, but for different reasons. An angry look came over his face. "What I remember about that was taking orders as your deputy and mopping floors and getting called all kinda names!" He let go of Rosco's arm. "But you're right, Rosco, he was a mean fella, and I don't imagine that spending two years in prison helped him to be a better person. We gotta get word out to Enos about this, pronto!"

At that very moment, Enos crashed through the door. Breathing heavily, he looked both surprised and relieved to see Jesse and Daisy standing before him. "You're here!" He exclaimed. "I saw your jeep parked out front and couldn't believe my eyes. I had to come in to make sure I wasn't imagining it!" He instinctively gave Daisy a quick hug. "I'm so glad you're alright!" Then almost as suddenly, he let go of Daisy and his face frowned. "But it doesn't make any sense."

Cooter seemed shocked at Enos' entrance and outburst. "Enos, what on Earth are you talking about?"

Enos calmed down enough to explain the strange call for help on the CB, and how it was even stranger that once he got to the scene, there was no jeep anywhere to be found, and no one in that area had seen or heard anything about an accident.

Jesse shrugged. "That is weird, Enos. Who would do such a thing like make a false claim of an accident?"

A horrified look once again crossed Rosco's face. "Enos? If you're here and I'm here…..who's with Bo?"

Almost in unison, everyone in the room said Bo's name and ran for the door, except Enos, who didn't quite understand everyone's feeling of urgency. "Bo told me to go, Sheriff. He said he would be alright." He called after Rosco as he ran out along with them.

"Never mind that now, Enos. I'll explain the whole situation to you while we're on our way back."

Jesse hollered out to Rosco, Boss and Enos as they all ran to their vehicles. "While you're driving, make sure one of you get in touch with Sheriff Little on the CB to be sure he knows what's going on here so that he doesn't release Luke to anyone. There's a reason why they wanted the Hazzard jail empty, and I've got a really bad feeling that it was so they could get to Bo. Let's be sure the same can't happen with Luke. I just hope we're not too late for either of them."

Riding in the back of the van, Bo looked in the direction that he'd just heard the voice. "Luke? Is that really you?"

"Yeah, Bo, it's me. Are you okay?"

Bo sighed, "Well, cousin, I've been better. How 'bout you?"

"The same, I guess." As always, Luke was trying to think of a plan. "Can you scooch over this way?"

"No," Bo answered, "I'm strapped down to this seat and I can't hardly move at all. Do you have a blindfold on too?"

"Yeah, and it's on pretty tight, too."

"I hear ya there." The sound of Luke's voice seemed to calm Bo down enough that his heart was slowly coming back to a somewhat normal rhythm. "Did you see who it was? It's that Steel fella behind this whole thing." Bo shook his head, although Luke couldn't see that, "Seems to me that we shoulda figured that out before now. Remember how anxious he was a few years back to put us away for good? Heck, he even had a double of The General, a close enough match that even we didn't know it was a fake."

Luke agreed. "Yeah, I saw him, and you're right, I don't know how we missed it either, it's so obvious now that I look back at it."

Bo had to ask, "How did Steel get by Little to get you out?"

Luke seemed disgusted, and blew out an indignant breath, "He didn't hafta do nothing. He just had one of his goons dressed up in a police uniform, saying he was there to pick me up, and Little just handed me over, no questions asked. I never seen nothing like it. It was like he was so anxious to get me out of his cell and off to Atlanta that he didn't even care who I was supposedly going with." Luke stomped his foot in anger. "Man, I wish someone who wore a badge in these parts had some sort of idea how the law actually worked." He seemed to calm down a bit after his outburst. "How about you?"

"Well," Bo started, "For one reason or another, Steel musta had it in his head that he needed to get me alone in the jail, so he had someone call in a fake accident that Uncle Jesse and Daisy were in to get Enos to leave. Less than five minutes later, I think the same goon came in and took me out."

Luke sat up straight. "You sure that accident was fake? Jesse and Daisy are okay, right?"

Bo turned his head downward, "I'm pretty sure they are, Luke. The guy laughed at me and told me pretty much straight out that it was all a lie. He seemed real happy with their plan, too." Now it was Bo's turn to kick out in anger. "Dang! I wish there was some sort of way to let Jesse, Daisy, or anybody know what's going on! We'll be half way to Atlanta before anyone catches on to what's happened."

"That is, if we're really going to Atlanta." Luke replied. Then, thinking back to what happened in the Hazzard jail compared to Chickasaw County, continued. "But the fact that they didn't just go in and sign you out of Hazzard may be a good sign that they felt Rosco and Enos may have been on to them. If they didn't sense that one of them would be suspicious, they woulda done the same as they did with Little."

Bo thought about it for a minute. "True." He answered. "You know, now that I think about it, Rosco was acting a little strange this morning. He even spent the night with me in the downstairs cell. Seemed odd enough that it made me wonder what the heck was up with him. Maybe something happened last night that spooked Rosco."

"Well, whatever it was, let's hope it was enough to make him start a real investigation. I know Jesse, Cooter and Daisy had a whole list of potential leads they were going to look into this morning. We'll just hafta keep our fingers crossed that they come up with something fast. They're really our only hope at this point." He futilely struggled against his cuffs and the strap holding him down to his seat. "Otherwise, I don't see us getting out of this predicament anytime soon."


	9. Chapter 9

Daisy's jeep and Rosco's sheriff car pulled up in front of the jailhouse and all the passengers rushed in only to discover that Bo was, in fact, missing from his jail cell. Jesse was very dismayed, although he had to admit that he wasn't overly surprised that the false rescue call was indeed a decoy to get Enos out of the way so that Bo could more easily be taken.

Enos had been on the CB with Sheriff Little on his way from the Boar's Nest to the jail, and was informed that Luke had been picked up as well. Sheriff Little had told Enos that the gentleman produced an identification badge that named him as Deputy John Smith from Atlanta Corrections Department, so Little naturally assumed that it was a legitimate pick up. Enos said that Little actually did seem concerned about the idea of the boys in the hands of dangerous criminals and had asked Enos to keep him informed and let him know if they needed his assistance. Given the fact that Sheriff Little never actually saw the make or model of the transport vehicle, it didn't give them any leads in intercepting Steel's plan. They were running out of hope, when Miss Tisdale pushed open the doors.

"Jesse," she cried out. "I think Bo may be in trouble. I know he was being held here because of what Ms. Harpswell claimed happened the day he was fixing my fence, but from what I saw it looks like something bad may have happened to him." Miss Tisdale never needed a real excuse to get close to Jesse, and this time no one could be sure whether she really needed a hug from Jesse or was just using this as a reason to put her arms around him, but either way, she got a quick squeeze in.

Jesse awkwardly placed his arms over the top of her shoulders and gently pushed her back to arms' length away. "It's alright, Miss Tisdale, what did you see? You said something happened to Bo?"

"Yes, and it was terrible. I tried to follow the van, but I couldn't get my foolish motorcycle started." Looking to Cooter, "I'll need you to look at that for me, next chance you get."

Cooter nodded to her, but did his best to keep her on track. "Sure thing, Miss Tisdale. Now, what about Bo?"

"Yeah, yeah, about Bo. I was coming out of Peabody's Appliances when I seen this man escorting Bo in handcuffs out to this van. It caught my attention, of course, so I watched real close. Then when Bo saw the other guy come out of the van, Bo started arguing with him a bit, then they put a cloth over Bo's eyes and shoved him into the back of the van and sped away. I know something was wrong with this, because they don't usually blindfold prisoners if they're escorting them somewheres."

Jesse became hopeful for a moment as he asked the next important question. "Did you by any chance get a good look at the van?"

Miss Tisdale smiled. "You know I did, Jesse. It was a maroon Chevy van with bars on the back windows. Atlanta plate number 745609B. They were headed north and looked like they were going to turn up Route 14. This all happened about thirty minutes ago."

Cooter snapped his fingers. "Maroon van with bars on the back windows! That's the same van they had when they came after the boys two years ago."

Enos headed directly to the phone. "If they were headed to Route 14, they would have to go across Chickasaw County. I'm gonna get on the horn right now to let Sheriff Little know and hopefully he can set up a road block at the county line. If they left here about thirty minutes ago, they may still have enough time to catch them before they leave Hazzard."

Rosco grabbed his hat and headed toward the door. "And if I take some major short cuts, we may actually be able to cut them off before they get too far away."

"Yeah, yeah," added Boss. "Hold on Rosco, I'm coming with ya."

Jesse took Miss Tisdale in his arms and hugged her tightly before he went running out the door. "I can't thank you enough for telling us all this. I'm forever obliged to ya."

Miss Tisdale's cheeks turned a bright pink as she beamed from ear to ear. Daisy also gave her a hug and kiss on the cheek as she followed everyone out for the chase.

Even though Sheriff Rosco and Sheriff Little never really got along and always butted heads, Sheriff Little seemed to like Enos enough. Perhaps it was because Little always felt a little sorry for Enos because he had to take orders all day long from an idiot like Coltrane, or maybe Enos just had a natural way of bringing out the best in people, but either way when Enos called Little for help, he was quick to oblige. Little assured Enos that a road block would be set up at both of the interstates leading into and out of Chickasaw County immediately, and that he would put out an A.P.B for the van as well. Once Enos hung up with the sheriff, he quickly ran out to his patrol car to join the race to the county line.

Meanwhile, Bo and Luke continued their uncomfortable ride in the back of the van. They had been traveling for about half an hour, stopping once for a few minutes before continuing. Luke figured it was either for gas or supplies, and he couldn't help but snicker a little bit about how they should have been more prepared with either of those necessities before they had picked them up. "Ya see, Bo? Even after having two years to plan his revenge, he still wasn't smart enough to remember to gas up the van!"

Bo smiled a bit and chortled, but didn't seem in the mood to talk too much anymore.

"You okay?" Luke asked, noticing the silence from his usually talkative cohort.

"Yeah, it's just that my head feels like a freight train's driven through it. Man, this blindfold is on so tight I can't stand it. Feels like my eyes are being pressed into the back of my skull."

"Yeah, mine's pretty tight too, but by the sounds of it yours is tighter. I wish I could help you, but I can't help with your headache any more than you can help me get over this feeling of carsickness. Getting bounced around back here is making me nauseous. I swear if you're not driving, Bo, I get sick to my stomach. Weird, huh?"

"Not really. I am a great driver, after all." Bo managed to retort.

Luke smiled, "That you are, cousin. That you are."

Just then, the van began to slow down, then after a moment, it stopped again. Both Bo and Luke were quiet for a moment as they tried to listen for any conversation from the front of the van. Upon hearing nothing, Bo turned to Luke for his opinion. "How far do you suppose we've gotten by now, Luke? We wouldn't be in Atlanta already….maybe Chickasaw?"

Luke tilted his head as he thought, "I'd figure Chickasaw would be the furthest place we could have been driven in that amount of time, especially taking into consideration the stop we made earlier. I can't think of any reason we'd be stopping now, though."

Steel turned off the engine as he peered through his binoculars. The sight ahead angered him, however he was grateful that he had decided to take the high road to have a look before he had tried to cross the county line. Police cars could be seen setting up a road block along the highway, and Steel was quite certain he knew exactly who they were looking for. "Damn it!" Steel muttered to his passenger, "I knew something would go wrong, it was all going too smooth." He sighed as he took the binoculars from his face. "Well, I guess we'll have to find a hide out for the night and regroup in the morning. Let's double back a bit, but we'll have to take some back roads now. I'm thinking Coltrane and the other Dukes have figured out what happened with their precious boys. We need to get off the main highway."

After about twenty minutes of searching, Steel came across an old saw mill that looked as though it hadn't been used for several years. Coming to the mill they hadn't passed a house or car for several miles, so Steel figured it would be as safe a place to hide as they would find tonight. He parked the van behind the mill and opened the van's back doors.

Steel couldn't help but snicker at the sight of Bo and Luke, still secured in their seats and looking much more tired and worn out then when they were put back there. "Looks like the ride took some of the fight out of ya, huh boys? What's the matter? Don't feel like kicking and struggling no more?"

Not ever being one to admit defeat, Bo sneered back at him, "Oh we've got plenty of fight left in us, you can be sure about that. We're just saving it for the right time, is all."

Luke chimed in a bit at that time. "Seems to me like you made record time getting us to Atlanta. Didn't seem to me that we'd gone more than forty miles or so, and everyone knows that Atlanta's at least seventy five to eighty miles out. You didn't run into any trouble, now did ya?"

Steel could feel himself quickly becoming very annoyed. "Nope, no trouble at all. Don't you boys worry, we'll be in Atlanta soon enough. We're just gonna stop here for the night." Looking over at his partner, Steel instructed "Let's get them inside and secured, Leon, then we can get ourselves settled." Bo, being closest to the door, could feel hands on him as the strap around his waist was unfastened and he was pulled out of the van. He was then pressed tightly against the side of the van and held there. "Keep him right there while I get the other one." Luke was also dragged out the van doors and the two of them were led inside.

Once inside, they were both sat down on the cement floor against some posts about twenty feet apart and tied to them. The handcuffs and blindfolds were kept on. "Good night, fellas. Good luck getting comfortable."

Desperate for some relief, Bo called out to Steel. "Listen, could you please take the blindfolds off us? Mine's on so tight that it's got my head pounding like a sledgehammer. It's really killing me, I can't take this all night."

Luke froze as he heard Steel's footsteps headed toward Bo. He had a really strong feeling that not only was Bo's request going to be denied, but that Bo had just made it worse for himself, as usual.

Steel walked up to Bo and knelt down to his face. "Now, let me check my memory here. Ain't you the one who was sitting on top of the car a while back, yacking into a speaker system about what a 'yellow bellied coward' I was? Going around all of Hazzard saying how I was afraid to come face to face with you?" He grabbed Bo's hair and forced his head back a little bit, "Yeah, you're the one." Bo's breathing started to become more rapid as he bit down on his lip to fight back the pain throbbing even worse through his head. "Well, you don't seem so tough now, whining about how you're poor head hurts. Lemee tell ya, you'll take it for as long as I say you're gonna." With that, he let go of Bo's hair, but boxed the side of his head with his fist, causing Bo to cry out a little as the pain seared through his ears and head. "There, now you've got something to cry about, big man."

Luke heard the strike and was furious. "Leave him alone!" He growled. "You really are a coward. You only dare to fight us when we're defenseless to fight back, and believe me, Bo would knock you into next week. Take them cuffs off us and let's see how tough you are."

Now Steel walked up to Luke, kicking him in the ribs and causing Luke to double over. "And as for you," Steel continued, "Don't go thinking you've got a way out of this, 'cause let me assure you, there ain't no way out for either of you. You both belong to me now." Walking away, Steel had to point out just one more fact. "And as for how tough you both are, I seem to recall that neither of you could outfight me, it took the both of you against one of me to finally bring me down. Alone I could whoop either one of you, and you both know it to be true. You ain't nothing but dirty fighters, and I can play dirty right along with the best of them." Steel walked through the mill door, leaving both Bo and Luke writhing in pain and gasping for breath.

Luke was the first to recover enough to speak. "Bo? You alright? Talk to me."

Bo tried in vain to wish the pain away. Giving up, he leaned his head back against the rough wooden beam and let the throbbing take over his head, eyes, ears and neck. The strike had jarred him a bit, and he was struggling to recover.

"Bo!" Luke shouted, "Answer me. I need to know you're okay."

"Yep." Bo could feel his blindfold moisten as the tears streamed from the corners of his eyes. He was silently grateful that Luke was blindfolded so he wouldn't be able to see it. "Never better."

Luke relaxed a little at the fact that at least Bo was still conscious. "Just try to hang in there, cousin. First chance I get, I'm gonna make sure that Steel pays for that one, and pays hard!" He fought back tears himself as his mind was desperately trying to figure something out to get them out of this. "I'll make damned sure of it."


	10. Chapter 10

_**My story is wrapping up now. I will have one more chapter after this one. Somehow, it was much shorter in my head then it ended up on paper, but hopefully it doesn't drag.**_

_**Thanks again for all the kind reviews and messages along the way. **_

_**I do not own any rights to the Dukes of Hazzard or its characters.**_

Things were beginning to get a little desperate for the search party looking for Bo and Luke. Try as they may, they just couldn't seem to catch a break in locating the ever illusive maroon van with bars on the back doors. Even taking all the short cuts and breaking every speed limit in the book, they still started out enough behind that there was no sign of them anywhere. Ironically, the two people who had even the slightest chances of driving fast enough to catch the van were the ones who were trapped in the back of it.

Once they reached the Chickasaw County line, they met with Sheriff Little and shared information. He assured them that no vehicle even remotely matching that description had crossed the line or had been seen at all on any of his roads. The logical thought would be that wherever the van was, there was a good chance it was still in Hazzard.

It was getting close to six o'clock by now, and within a few hours the sun would be setting. Enos suggested that perhaps Steel had seen the roadblock and decided to find a place to hide out until morning. If this were the case, it would give them enough time to search some of the abandoned warehouses and storage areas within a few miles. Little's men would continue to stop every vehicle that tried to cross into Chickasaw, and would let them know if anything turned up that might lead them to the Duke boys. Feeling the need to cover extra ground, they decided to split up. Rosco, Enos and Boss would check all the areas to the East, while Cooter, Jesse and Daisy checked to the West. They all promised to stay close to their radios and would check in with each other every half hour regardless of if they had anything to report.

Luke hadn't even realized that he'd fallen asleep until he heard a door open and it made him jump back to consciousness. He'd lost track of how much time had passed, and with the blindfold on he couldn't even tell if it was dark or light out. He tried to sit up a little straighter as he heard footsteps coming close to him. Surprisingly, he felt something cold and wet being placed to his lips and realized he was being offered some water. Being quite thirsty, Luke gulped what he could before the bottle was taken away. "Thank you." Luke offered, barely above a whisper.

He then heard the steps leading away from him, and heard a slight rustling sound and Bo groaning a little and knew that Bo was being woken up. He assumed Bo was given some water as well when Luke heard him giving his thanks.

The voice he heard next was not Steel's, so Luke figured it must have been his accomplice, Leon. "Lean forward a bit." Leon said to Bo. Bo gave a huge sigh of relief when he felt that his blindfold was finally being loosened. "Thank God," Bo moaned.

"You tell Steel I did that, and you'll be sorry." Leon threatened. "And don't go thinking that this means that I'm gonna do anything else to help ya, 'cause that ain't the case!" Then he added a little more softly, "I suffered with migraine headaches my whole life, so I can sympathize with the pounding you've been feeling."

"How is your head now, Bo?" Luke inquired.

"It still hurts, but it's bearable as long as I don't move. The minute I move my eyes or head it starts pounding again. Hopefully it'll lighten up a bit now."

Luke decided to gently test the waters with Leon. "What time is it?" He asked

"That don't make no difference to you." was the answer Luke heard as Leon turned and headed toward the door.

Trying to keep Leon talking for a minute, Luke continued, "Do you think there's any chance of us getting some food? I'm getting pretty hungry."

"I doubt it. Water's one thing, but Steel didn't say anything about any food. You'll be fine until morning. I know you both ate today, so I'm not worried too much about you missing supper."

"You know," Luke was starting to push a little more now, "It's not too late for you. You could just take off and your part in all this will still be real small. We'll even say that Steel was working alone…."

There was now a second voice in the room as Luke heard the door slam again, and this voice wasn't anywhere near as decent as the first. "Nice try, Duke!" It sneered. "Leave it to you to try to pull a fast one with Leon, but it's not gonna work." Then turning to Leon, Steel continued, "Take blondie there into the other storage unit. I'm gonna separate these two until we're ready to move again."

Luke argued with that. "That ain't necessary. What can we do anyway? You've got us tied up ten times tighter than needed, there's no way we can get out of this."

"I'm not taking any chances." growled Steel. Again to Leon, "This one here's the thinker, while that hothead over there acts before he thinks. You put a schemer and an impulsive together and you get unpredictable, and I hate surprises. Now do what I said and take him out of here. Make sure he's secured real tight before you leave him." Leon dutifully untied Bo from the post and led him out to the adjoining warehouse.

Never one to back down, Luke continued. "You're never gonna get away with this, Steel. Sure, you had a real good plan going with the frame ups, but you messed up the getaway, and now you've screwed yourself into a corner, and it's just a matter of time before you're caught."

"And who do you suppose is out there to save you?" retorted Steel. "You think your sheriff's gonna come save your sorry hides? Keep in mind, Duke, that he's the one who got me involved with you in the first place. If it weren't for him hating the two of you so much, we never would've even met!"

It was almost hard to argue with that, as Luke knew it was a partial truth. "Well, a lot's happened since then, and we've all come to an understanding, for the most part. What's past is past, and we try not to dwell on that." Luke decided to switch gears a bit. "Besides, me and Bo's got no quarrel with you. You were the one coming after us, we didn't come looking for you. We never done nothing to you, and you planted a gun in our car, set us up for grand theft auto, even landed our uncle in the hospital with a head injury that dang near killed him! In one week you turned our lives into a living Hell, and we did what we had to do to get out from under you. We weren't the ones who made it personal. You had guns pointed at us, and we did what we did to survive."

Steel sighed as he leaned back against the wall. "You just don't get it, do you, Duke. This ain't about getting even with you or your cousin, this is about finishing the job. I had a stellar reputation for always getting my man, and after you and Coltrane, that was ruined. Come Hell or high water I will finish this job, even without getting compensated for it." He punched his fist into the palm of his other hand, "And I'm gonna really savor getting Coltrane for this. You see, he called me, offering four times my fee to put you two away for good, and when I do he stiffs me my fee and gets me sent away for two years." He kicked against the wall behind him. "And, to make matters worse, when I serve my time and get out, I ain't got a business to go back to 'cause no one wants to hire me as a detective anymore since my reputation's been ruined. I was only doing what I was hired to do. But now, see now….I've got a real score to settle with that sheriff of yours, and I don't care who I have to step on to get to him. I chose the two of you just for the sheer delight in seeing you squirm."

Curiosity got the best of Luke, and he had to ask. "About the set up…I'm assuming you got look alikes somehow for me and Bo, and you had the fake General Lee already from the attempted theft charge two years ago, but there's one thing that's got me stumped."

Steel bit at the bait. "Yeah? What's that?"

Luke leaned forward against his restraints. "How did you pull off the shine jug? How would you know I'd be at the still sight and touch that jug, and how was it that the one jug that I touched was the one that didn't break?"

Steel couldn't help but show the tiniest hint of a smile, "I'm pretty sure I don't know what you're talking about, but if I were to plan that type of a set up…" He walked closer to Luke so he could speak more softly, "I would probably track my prey for a good three weeks or so, to be sure I knew of their habits before I launched my attack. Now, if someone did that with you, they may find that after the pond, your favorite thinking spot is the still site, and if there were some commotion going on at the pond that prevented you from having peace and quiet, say like a noisy motor boat, you just may decide to go to the still site after all. Then, it would just be a matter of placing a freshly wiped down jug made of special bulletproof glass on the couch where you like to sit, knowing that you would pick it up to move it. Then have the so-called look alike be sure to wear thin latex gloves so your prints would be the only ones on that jug when the police dusted it." Steel chuckled a bit before walking away. "Of course, that's all just speculation."

Luke sat dumbfounded for a moment as he heard footsteps leading back toward the warehouse door. "Good night, Duke, and sweet dreams."

The rescue team had been searching every dirt road in the area for about two hours, looking for any sign of the van or somewhere that may be used as a makeshift hideout. So far they had come up dry, and hope was fading that they would be able to find anything until morning as they had now lost the daylight. They circled back and rejoined at a cabin at one of Boss Hogg's old still sites to once again put their heads together. They decided that the only option they had was to stay at the cabin for the night and get a fresh start first thing in the morning. Little's men would have the road blocks up overnight, and their rescue mission became more dangerous without the safety of at least some daylight.

Enos sat up and made a checklist of all the locations they had already searched, and which ones were left to be searched. Unfortunately, they had started out going in the opposite direction that Steel had chosen so unknowingly they had wasted some time. However, little did Enos know that the very next location on his list to be searched was the very same place that Steel was now holding his hostages. Luke had been right in his warning to Steel. It would just be a matter of time now.


	11. Chapter 11

_**I'm sorry it's taken me a while to wrap this up. Thunderstorms knocked out my online service and set me back a few days.**_

_**This final chapter takes both Rosco and Boss Hogg slightly out of character, although I always suspected that Boss did have this side to him, but never had the opportunity to show it during the series. **_

_**I've had a great time writing this, and I really appreciate everyone taking the time to read it and give some feedback. You've all been extremely kind and friendly, and I truly appreciate that.**_

Daisy woke with a jump at five the following morning. She checked her surroundings, momentarily unaware of where she was. To her surprise, Jesse was already awake and looking over Enos' list of next locations to search. "Morning Sunshine." Jesse greeted her, trying his best to sound cheery.

Daisy gave a faint smile, "Good Morning to you. Did you get any sleep last night?"

Jesse shook his head slightly, "Maybe a few hours, but you know I can't sleep when any of you are out for the night, and knowing for sure that the boys are in trouble cinches it so's I know I ain't sleeping." He scratched his chest as he rose to put his boots on. "We've got to find them today, there's just no way around it."

"We will, Uncle Jesse, we will." Daisy concurred.

"She's right, you know. We will definitely find them today, and when we do, they will be safe and sound and both in good health. You can mark my words on that one."

Jesse and Daisy were surprised to hear Rosco's voice just then. Neither of them knew he was even awake. Apparently, Jesse wasn't the only one who wasn't sleeping as it looked as though Rosco had been sitting at the cabin window for the entire night with his gun on his lap. However, the snoring of Boss Hogg could be heard throughout the entire cabin as he continued to snooze away. Rosco looked over in Boss' direction and chuckled a little. "Sounds like my fat little buddy got enough sleep for all of us last night."

"That's probably the main reason why none of the rest of us got any." chimed in Cooter, who was just sitting up and stretching the sleep from his body. "I think I'd get a more peaceful night's sleep camped next to a fireworks display!"

Daisy walked over to Rosco, "Do you really think the boys are okay? From what I remember that Steel fella was really mean and full of hate for the boys."

Rosco shook his head, "See, that's where you're wrong, Daisy. Steel ain't full of hate for the boys, he's full of hate for me. I've been thinking about all this for a while, now, and it seems to me that if he'd really wanted the boys hurt, he would've done something to them before yesterday. He's had opportunities to hurt them and hasn't so far." He gazed back out the window as if expecting to see Steel at any moment. "No, I think he's just using them to get to me, and I just feel awful about this whole thing." Looking back to Daisy, Rosco's voice shook at little bit as he continued to talk to her. "But I tell ya, if either one of them boys gets hurt because of me, I'll never forgive myself."

Daisy laid a soothing hand on Rosco's shoulder and tried to console him. "Try not to worry none, Rosco. If there's one thing I know, it's that those boys can definitely take care of themselves. I've seen them come out of some pretty tight spots before where I really didn't think they'd had a chance." She smiled down at him. "You'll see. We'll all be joking about this tonight with the boys as they tell us all about what happened."

"That's right." Jesse added. "Besides, whenever the boys are in any real serious trouble, I can feel it in my big toe," He looked down and wiggled the toes on his feet. "and so far, so good."

They woke Boss and Enos, then all gathered around the table, studying the list. Enos had placed the names of six locations within twenty miles that they hadn't checked out yet, and they decided to split once again into their two groups to cover the area more quickly. Again, they agreed to keep very close to their radios and check in every half hour. As the sun began to peek out across the far corner of the sky, they climbed into their cars and officially began their search.

Steel approached Bo as he slept sitting on the concrete floor, leaned against a wooden post. When he reached him, Steel sharply kicked Bo's legs, "Wake up!" He shouted.

Bo woke with a start and pulled his legs close to him. Bo could feel his blood boiling as he lashed out with his teeth gnashed together, "I swear to you, if you kick or punch me one more time I'll….Oof!" Before Bo could even finish his empty threat, Steel kicked him three more times in his side and stomach, causing Bo to grunt and double over in pain once again. Steel shook his head in disbelief at the irony of the whole situation.

"I've just got to ask you, Duke," Steel began as he knelt down next to Bo, "Have you ever once thought about one word before it came out of your mouth? I mean, your cousin seems to have gotten all the brains in your family. He at least has the sense to respect the fact that I'm in charge here and I say what happens." He grabbed at Bo's shoulders and pulled him back into a full sitting position, causing Bo to wince "You are in no position to hurl threats at me, and just to show you how serious I am, I promise you it won't only be you that pays for this, it'll be Luke too." He let go of Bo and headed toward the door. "We leave in fifteen minutes. That'll give me plenty of time to wake your cousin with a nice little present on your behalf. I'll also be sure to tell him that he's getting hurt because of your big mouth."

Panic set over Bo as he realized what he had done. "No! Wait! Come back here! Don't hurt him, he didn't do nothing to you, it's me you're mad at." He stopped and listened for a moment. A few seconds later, he could hear Steel's voice shouting in the background and could hear the sound of Luke hollering out as he was being struck. Bo's entire body hurt, even his chest ached as his heart pounded harder than it ever had before. He couldn't believe what he'd done, and the punishment Luke had to take just then because of him was unbearable for Bo to think about. Feeling completely defeated, he curled his legs up close to him and could feel his body start to shake in both anger and fear. He also started feeling sick to his stomach and his head started pounding again. Try as he may, he just couldn't see any way that they were going to get out of this.

Luke could feel the rage surge through his body as Steel stood over him, having just finished kicking and striking Luke awake. "What the Hell is wrong with you, Steel? I've been cooperating with you!"

Steel snarled at him. "Yeah, well, your cousin hasn't been behaving very well at all, so to get back at him I decided to beat the tar outta you. I'm pretty sure he could hear that, too, so that makes it even better for me."

Luke shook his head in disbelief, "You're insane, Steel. There is something seriously wrong with you, you need help." Sensing Steel's anger, Luke pulled his legs close to him, trying to protect his body as much as possible from any further assault. Unfortunately, he couldn't cover his face as Steel doubled up his fist and nailed Luke hard in the jaw. Luke was dazed for a moment, and then succumbed to unconsciousness.

Enos, Rosco and Boss Hogg were ducked down behind some bushes along the parking area of the saw mill they were checking, hardly able to believe what they were seeing. The maroon van was parked around the back, empty, but with the engine running. It was obvious that Steel didn't plan to be there long, so they had to act fast.

"Enos, you go back to the patrol car and notify the others that we found Steel and have them come to meet us here." Rosco instructed "I'll head over to the other side of the mill to get a better view of what's going on."

Enos nodded and carried out Rosco's order. Rosco turned to Boss, telling him to stay put and then quickly made his way to the mill. Within a moment, Boss was alone, about to watch the entire scene from behind the bushes.

Surprisingly, as Rosco was rounding the corner of the building heading away, Steel came out a back door with another man and moved toward the van. Boss watched as they loaded some supplies into the van and looked to be preparing to leave. They then circled around to the front of the building and Boss silently prayed that Rosco had gotten out of sight by the time they got there.

Steel had left the back door open, and it was then that something moved a little from inside the building, catching Boss' attention. His eyes grew wide as he could make out the figure of a man sitting on the floor against a post. Boss was too far away to see well enough to assess the condition of the man, but the yellow shirt told him that it was most likely Bo Duke. Boss' heart started pounding as he desperately waited for either Rosco or Enos to come back, but neither of them were anywhere in sight. Knowing that there wasn't much time before Steel came back, Boss felt compelled to do something.

Making his way out from behind the bushes, Boss moved as quickly as his little body would allow toward the building, pausing only once to make sure Steel hadn't come back yet. Arriving at the door, he silently slipped inside and as he caught his breath, looked at Bo. He couldn't really get a good look at him because of the blindfold Bo was wearing, but could tell that Bo had been weakened by the way he hung his head. Boss took one last look outside and, seeing no sign of Steel, decided to make his move to get Bo out of there. Within a few seconds, Boss was knelt down next to Bo.

Bo jumped when Boss touched his arm, then started kicking out and twisting his torso back and forth to fight out as best as he could, startling Boss. "Bo! Be still and quiet now, it's me, J.D Hogg. I'm gonna get you out of here."

Bo froze. "Boss?" he whispered.

"Yeah, yeah. Now you hold still and I'll get you untied."

"Did you find Luke? He's been hurt bad, I think. Is he safe?"

Needing Bo's full cooperation and not being able to risk Bo insisting on rescuing Luke first, Boss decided to tell a little white lie. "Yeah, Rosco's gone to get him. He'll be okay."

Bo sighed in relief. "Could you take off my blindfold, please? It's been killing me since yesterday."

Boss grabbed the blindfold by the knot in the back and jerked it up, lifting it up over the top of Bo's head. Bo opened his eyes but couldn't focus on anything as the pressure against them had caused everything to be incredibly blurry. Plus, after being in complete darkness for so long, the daylight seared though Bo's dilated pupils, causing Bo to squint his eyes shut tight. Boss worked furiously on the knot and quickly had Bo untied. "Okay, you're untied now, get up and let's make a run for the bushes. That Steel will be back soon."

Bo tried in vain to stand up, but both his legs and the lower section of his back had fallen asleep and those muscles were screaming out in agony and cramped as Bo attempted to move them.

"Hold on, I can't stand up yet." Bo admitted.

Boss couldn't help but sound insensitive as he felt the urgency to escape. "Bo, you've got to find a way to stand up right now, we've got to get out of here and you're far too big for me to carry ya." Seeing that Bo really was trying with everything he had, Boss sighed. "Here, lean on me as much as you can, but you've got to pull your weight here, literally. I'm no good at this rescue business."

Leaning on Boss and letting him lead the way, a still blinded Bo made his way as best he could toward the door, gaining some speed and mobility with each step. Within a few moments they were outside the door and back behind the safety of the bushes. Enos was there waiting for them and came out to take one of Bo's arms over his shoulder to help. "Hooey, Mr. Hogg! That was some heroic thing you just did for Bo. It was just amazing the way you just ran in there and pulled him out!"

"Shhh! Enos be quiet. Steel's coming back now!" Boss hissed out to quiet Enos before their hideout was discovered. Steel hadn't noticed anything amiss yet, as he stood on the other side of the van, talking to Leon.

Bo's vision was slowly coming back to him, although everything was still very blurry. Looking around, he was dismayed to not be able to see Luke anywhere. "Enos, has Rosco come out with Luke yet?" He whispered.

Enos shook his head and looked back toward the building. "Not yet, Bo." Enos then informed them of what he had heard on the CB. "Jesse's on his way. Said he was less than five minutes away and would be here very shortly. I told them to stop their vehicles on the roadside and walk in toward the back. That way they won't be seen coming in."

Boss nodded at Enos. "Yeah, yeah, ah…good job, Enos." Boss managed to stammer out, obviously not good at the complimenting business, either. Then, looking back toward the building added, "I just hope Rosco gets back here soon with Luke. I wonder what's taking them so long."

Rosco hid along the outside of the front corner of the saw mill as he watched Steel and Leon walk around the corner. They opened the front door of the building, took out a few boxes and filled them with supplies. While they were preoccupied, Rosco slipped in the front door to have a look around. There wasn't much to see there except cobwebs and sawdust, so Rosco explored a little deeper inside. He was starting to wonder if Bo and Luke were actually there with them as he opened the last doorway. To his surprise, there sat Luke, who appeared to be propped up against a post, sound asleep.

Rosco quickly ran up next to Luke and tried to awaken him, but he was unresponsive. Rosco checked Luke's breathing and vitals and, seeing they were still strong, figured that Luke had either been knocked out or had passed out. Realizing that there wasn't much time, Rosco began to work the knot that held Luke to the post. Once that was untied, he grabbed Luke and attempted to lift him. Much to his surprise, Luke was much heavier than Rosco expected. He decided instead to lift Luke under the arms and drag his legs as he headed out the door. As they left the building, Luke started to regain consciousness. His reaction to being handled was about the same that Bo's had been and he started to fight and squirm to free himself from Rosco's grasp.

"Easy there, Luke. It's me, Rosco, and we're gonna get outta here. Now, quit fighting me and start helping me by walking on your own." He sat Luke down for a moment and pulled off his blindfold so he could see what was going on. The daylight caused Luke to squeeze his eyes back shut and shake his head a little, as if it would make his vision come in more clearly. Rosco grabbed him again by the arm and led him out the door.

They took refuge around the far corner of the building to escape the line of vision of Steel and Leon, who were both within two hundred feet of them. Rosco again turned to Luke and whispered. "Now, we need to make a run to the back of the building, but stay as quiet as possible and don't say a word until we get out of earshot."

Luke shook his head at Rosco and whispered. "I ain't going nowhere without Bo. He's still inside tied up in another room."

Rosco knew that it was only a matter of seconds before Steel went back inside and discovered Luke was missing, so he was starting to get anxious. "You're gonna go exactly where I say you're gonna go! Now, I know you're worried about Bo, but ya gotta understand that I can only do one thing at a time here, and right now we gotta get you outta their reach. It ain't gonna matter none when I get Bo out if they've turned around and caught you again, now is it?"

Luke's jaw was set tight, indicating that he still didn't like the idea, but he knew that Rosco was right, for once, so he nodded his agreement to listen. "Okay, Rosco, I'll go. But Bo's being held right inside the back door, I think. They separated us last night and put Bo in the room next to the one I was in. Ya gotta go right back in and get him. Steel's getting real nasty with Bo, and he won't hesitate to hurt him bad if he finds out I'm gone before you get him out."

Rosco nodded as he again helped a not so steady Luke back to his feet. Peeking around the front corner, he could see Steel walking across the front of the building again, leaving the back clear to make a break for the bushes where everyone, including Bo, would be waiting for them. Rosco turned to Luke, "Let's make a run for it now!"

Meanwhile, Enos and Boss were having a hard time keeping Bo down and quiet as he figured out that Luke hadn't been rescued yet. Even though he still had his hands cuffed behind him, Bo was determined that he was going back after Luke. Jesse and Cooter had just arrived and were just coming up from behind them when Bo managed to get himself up on his feet and was about to run back to the sawmill. Jesse could hear what was happening with Bo, and a parental reflex hit Jesse as he instinctively reached out with one hand and grabbed Bo by the chain that held his hands together behind him. Yanking Bo backward, he dropped him back to the ground in a sitting position. "Stay put, boy." He warned, "And if you try anything like that again, I'll make sure you sorely regret it, ya hear me?" Stunned speechless, Bo helplessly looked up at Jesse as his eyes began to tear up. Jesse, also fighting back tears, immediately knelt down in front of Bo and took him in his arms. Bo couldn't hug back, but he rested his head on Jesse's shoulder as emotions began to take over him. Jesse held Bo tight. "You sure had me worried this time." He confessed as he pulled Bo back just far enough to have a look at him. "You okay?"

Bo was still a little shaky, but he nodded. "I'm fine. It's Luke that isn't okay. Steel beat him this morning, and it's all my fault. Boss said Rosco was getting him out, but they ain't come back yet and…."

"There they are!" Enos hissed as he pointed to the far corner of the building. Bo, Boss and Jesse all turned to watch as Rosco led Luke toward them and the safety of the bushes. Once hidden, Luke and Rosco were both shocked to see that Bo had already been rescued and was safe. Jesse then turned his attention to his oldest, hugging him and telling him how relieved he was that his boys were safe now. He then inspected him for injuries as he looked him up and down. "How ya doin', boy? You okay? Bo said you was hurt."

Luke shook his head. "I'm fine. It was Bo that was hurt."

Jesse couldn't help but shake his head and give a soft smile. His two boys always downplayed their own injuries and concentrated each others. "Well," He reasoned. "I guess you're both none too worse for the wear, but we're gonna get you both checked out once we get ya back home."

At that moment, an enraged shout could be heard as Steel finally discovered that his hostages were missing. Steel ran outside the building and began desperately searching the area of the property, frantically waving his gun around as he hollered out for Bo and Luke. Leon also came out, but was looking much more scared than angered as he held the blindfold that Bo had worn. Leon handed it to Steel.

Steel eyed it as he tried to put together what had happened. "They musta had some help. There ain't no way he took this off himself. It was on much to tight for him to slip out of it on his own." He then looked into the woods and toward the road. "Who's out there with ya, boys?" He called out. "It wouldn't be your big brave sheriff, now would it?"

Leon began pacing back and forth much like a caged animal. He began wondering what the Hell he was doing in all of this, and why he was sticking around now. Now that Steel had his attention away from him, Leon realized that this was his perfect opportunity for a clean escape. He jumped into the van and sped off like a canon, leaving Steel bellowing behind him to 'come back or else' as he took a few wild gunshots at the back of the van.

Meanwhile, Daisy had been parking the jeep behind Rosco's patrol car. As she saw the maroon van drive off, she naturally assumed that Steel was in it with Bo and Luke, and she started running toward the saw mill to alert the others of their escape. Little did she realize, she was practically running into Steel's arms.

Steel reached out and grabbed Daisy around the waist and held her tightly as he drew his gun to her head. "Okay, Coltrane! I've got one of your little helpers, here! Now be a man and come on out and face me, before anyone gets hurt!"

Rosco realized he didn't have much time and needed to act fast. Turning to Jesse, he started to set up a plan. "Jesse, I need you and Cooter to take the boys and Boss back to the vehicles and keep them out of sight." Then to Enos, "I'm gonna head over that way so that Steel doesn't see us up here, and you head over the other way. It's our only chance to get him surrounded. Once I'm over there, I'm gonna come out where he can see me, meanwhile, you try to come up from behind him." Everyone then split up and went in separate directions, following Rosco's orders.

Jesse grabbed each of his kin by an arm and practically dragged them back to the cars. Once back there, Cooter dug into the back of Daisy's jeep for some bolt cutters to free Bo and Luke from their cuffs. Once their hands were released, they wanted very badly to go back and face Steel, but Jesse wouldn't permit it.

"Now you listen here, and you listen good. That fella Steel has a gun and a temper, and the only thing you're gonna wind up doing by storming down there is to get Daisy and yourselves killed. Now, I know it's hard to hear, but right now Enos and Rosco's our best bet to take Steel down, or at least they have guns of their own to back themselves up with. I only wish I'd thought to grab the bows and arrows for you boys, then we'd have a fighting chance against him."

After a bit of persuasion, it was decided that they would at least creep a little closer so they could see what was going on, and if Rosco and Enos managed to get the gun away from Steel, then they would be able to rush in and help take him down. By the time they got back behind the bushes, Rosco had already come out with his hands up and presented himself to Steel. Bo and Luke listened closely to what was happening below them.

"Okay, Steel, you win." Rosco was saying, "Let the girl go and you can take my car out of here and escape. That way no one gets hurt."

Steel began to laugh. "Hurt? What's the point of all this if no one gets hurt? Why, hurting you is the part I've been looking forward to the most!" Cocking the gun against Daisy's head, Steel made his demand. "Drop that gun and get your ass over here where I can reach you!"

Rosco took a few steps toward Steel, before dropping his gun to the ground. As soon as the gun hit the dirt, Steel lashed out with his gun and clocked Rosco clean across the jaw, knocking him down and knocking him out cold. Steel seemed very disappointed. "Shoulda figured you for a lightweight, Coltrane." He sneered. "You didn't even put up a decent fight. That didn't hardly seem worth anything." He then returned the gun to Daisy's head and cooed in her ear. "Looks like it's just you and me now, sugar. We're gonna take a nice trip in the Sheriff's car and go find ourselves somewhere nice and cozy to get to know each other a little better." He started to drag her away, when Enos made his entrance from the woods.

"Hold it right there, Steel, and drop your weapon or I'll shoot!" Enos stood frozen with his gun drawn on Steel, but he was noticeably shaking.

"Well now, where did you come from?" Steel coyly asked. "I don't seem to remember you from two years ago. Seems to me it was some drip named Cletus who was deputy before." He turned his body to face Enos as he hid behind Daisy. "Let me tell you how it's gonna work, now. You're gonna drop your gun just like your sheriff did, and if you don't, I'm gonna shoot the girl. You've got 'til the count of three. One…..two….."

Seeing no other way, and not having a clear shot, Enos reluctantly dropped his gun.

"That's better." Steel praised. "Now, the girl and me will be taking a ride now, and you'll stay right there until we're out of here. And don't try anything funny or heroic, or I promise you, she will be dead. You got that?"

Enos nodded and bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Daisy." He apologized. "I promise we'll find a way to get you out of this."

Again Steel laughed. "Don't make promises you can't keep. I've got the girl, I've got the car, and after a while, I'll be back to finish things where I started with your sheriff and them hick cousins. I'm not done with any of you yet. I'll get my revenge on all of you even worse than this time. I will have my victory in all this, end of story!"

Suddenly, there was now a gun placed directly at Steel's temple as Rosco had come up from behind him. In surprise, Steel had turned to see who it was and had taken the gun away from Daisy just for a second, and Rosco slapped at the gun and knocked it clean from Steel's hand as Daisy ran to the safety of Enos' arms. Everyone in the bushes sat in awe with their mouths open as Rosco spoke softly into Steel's ear. "You forgot a chapter in that story, Steel. It's the chapter where you have the right to remain silent." Steel stared at Rosco in disbelief as Rosco smiled. "Seems I'm not such a lightweight after all, just a good actor. Coot coot!"

Watching from the bushes, Bo could no longer stand it as the rage was taking control of his body. He bolted out and charged toward Steel with Luke right behind him. Bo hit Steel hard with a body slam, knocking him a good ten feet from Rosco and onto the ground. Within seconds, Bo was on top of him. "Ya like punching people and kicking people who can't fight back? Ya like watching people in pain and keeping them tied up?" Bo shouted. "Well, then, I'm gonna enjoy this more than I care to admit." He raised his fist back and was about to strike, when Luke came up behind him and grabbed his arm.

"Bo, Stop!" Luke commanded. "Don't do anything you're gonna regret."

"Don't worry, I won't regret one minute of this." Bo answered as he struggled to free his arm from Luke's grasp. "Lemee go!"

Luke shook his head as he held Bo's arm tight. "I know he deserves it, and I know he's put us through Hell this week. But, Bo, if you do this, then you're no better than he is. Look at him! The guy's a loser. He's already lost and he's going right back to prison where he belongs. He's done." Sensing that Bo was starting to listen to him, Luke cautiously loosened his grip on him. Bo started to regain control of his breathing and calmed down a bit. Luke put his hand on Bo's shoulder. "C'mon. Get off him now and let Rosco and Enos handle it. It's over now. Let's get out of here and get back home." Luke stood and held out a hand to Bo, who took it and got to his feet.

Bo looked back down at Steel. "You're about as pathetic as they come. I hope you rot in prison for the next ten years."

As Rosco led Steel to the patrol car, Daisy ran over to Bo and Luke and threw herself into their arms. "I was so worried about you two. I'm so glad you're okay!" She cried as she held them both tight.

"I'm glad you're okay, too. You really had us scared there for a minute." Luke chimed in as he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. The three cousins walked over to join Boss, Jesse and Cooter who were all walking toward them. Daisy then melted into Jesse's arms as he gave her a tight squeeze. "Looks like we've got some celebrating to do tonight." Jesse announced, "Just as soon as we get out of here and get back home, I'll fix us all up a nice dinner and we can all catch up with each other and then get some much needed rest." Turning to Boss, Jesse added, "And I hope you, Rosco and Enos can all join us for dinner tonight. It don't seem like much, but it's all I can do to thank you for all you've done to help us."

"Sounds good to me, Jesse." Boss agreed. "I'm never one to turn down a good home cooked meal."

As they got back to Daisy's jeep, Bo started looking in the glovebox. "Hey, Daisy? You got any aspirin in here? My head's been killing me for two days now."

"I sure do, sugar, but it's not in the glove box, it's in my purse."

"Great. I'll take ten of them!"

Daisy smiled as she took the aspirin bottle out. "I'll give you three." She smiled as she handed the pills to Bo.

Jesse nodded. "That reminds me. First thing tomorrow you boys are both going with me in town to see the doctor."

Luke frowned and smacked Bo's arm. "See what you did? He would've forgotten the whole doctor's thing, but you had to go and start your bellyaching about a headache and remind him about it. Nice work, genius!"

Bo frowned back. "All I did was ask for some aspirin. You know my head's been killing me. It ain't my fault Steel tied that blindfold so danged tight!"

"Whine, whine whine." Luke continued.

Before either of them could speak again, Jesse chimed in. "One more word from any of you, and you'll both be needing a doctor for the blisters I'm gonna give you with my strap." He couldn't help but chuckle as he climbed into the jeep. "Now get yourselves in the jeep and let's get home. I've got a lot of cooking to do!"

Later that evening, they all gathered around Jesse's table and hungrily dug in to the wonderful meal that was prepared for them. Bo and Luke ate like savages, having not eaten anything since yesterday. Jesse jokingly admonished them to be sure they were actually chewing the food and not swallowing it down whole.

When Bo told the story of how Boss rescued him, Luke sat in disbelief. "Boss rescued you?" he clarified. "Wow! I never would've guessed that one."

"I know, but he did." Replied Bo, "I'd never been so surprised to hear Boss' voice as I was then, saying he was gonna get me out of there."

Boss chuckled as he swallowed a mouthful of food. "Yeah, well, you had me worried there when you said you couldn't walk, Bo. I was really wondering how I was gonna manage carrying you out as big and heavy as you are."

Rosco then chimed in and pointed at Luke. "Speaking of which, I would never have figured you to be so heavy, Luke. I've had to lift Bo before when he fell and hit his head on that log a few years back, and he was heavy enough. But you! You're much heavier than he is, and he's got a few inches on ya."

Jesse smiled. "That's cuz one's all legs and the other's all torso." He explained. "Torso outweighs leg."

Daisy laughed out loud as Bo suddenly looked insulted. "I'm not all leg." He argued. "I've got torso, too. Luke's just got more gut, is all."

Luke couldn't resist one last jab at Bo. "Yeah, well, it's just a good thing that ego's don't weigh anything, otherwise Bo wouldn't be able to lift himself outa bed each morning."

"Cute" Bo answered, but couldn't help smile at Luke's joke.

Jesse looked around the table at everyone. This had been quite a week, and he was incredibly grateful that everything and everyone was going to be okay. His wish had come true and he had his entire family back home and safe. Now, he just had to pray that tomorrow would prove to be a rather uneventful day in Hazzard County.


End file.
